Samantabhadra King of Aspiration Prayer
You can recite this at holy places during pilgrimages, when in front of sacred stupas, relics, blessed places. It contains the quintessence of all the aspirations of all the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. Also, you can recite this every night as a general dedication to conclude your practice that day. It can also be recited many times to conclude any vast activity that accumulates great merit as this prayer encompasses the dedications and aspirations of Manjushri and Samanatabhadra who represents all the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. This is also a very good practice to constantly recite to accumulate vast merits and purify, and to obtain rebirth in Amitabha’s pureland. Basically, this prayer is performed in Monlam (annual vast prayer festival for creating merit and praying for world peace in holy places like Bodhgaya) en masse by many ordained monks and nuns to pray for world peace and enlightenment and all the qualities on the path. It is truly one of the most beneficial prayer and it is the vajra speech of the Buddha so the blessings is extremely far-reaching and inconceivable. (The merit of reciting a prayer is determined by the depth of realisation of its author, so of course it is very wonderful to recite a prayer by the perfectly enlightened Buddha Shakyamuni himself)
This is also a very good prayer to recite for the deceased or in the event of a natural disaster (eg, the recent Japan earthquakes) for the benefit of those who are suffering and those who have passed away. Basically, this prayer has many purposes and it can be used in many ways.
(I have also read somewhere that Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche has said that for someone who received offerings from others eg, as an ordained monastic, reciting this prayer everyday was important to reduce/repay the karmic debts. Reciting this prayer will also be good to dedicate the merits of oneself and the benefactor properly)
There is a commentary on this prayer, i provided the link in a previous post. Please check for it.
Here it is: King of Aspiration Prayer (right click to download)
p/s: Note that there are some differences in several lines or arrangement from different translations of this prayer used by different schools. The one I put here is the general version used by the Nyingma school. No matter which version you use, just recite with the complete devotion and certainty, it is not of much use to split hairs over the definitive version as pure intention and firm faith is more important. The speech of the Buddhas is also beyond pinning down as this-or-that… this is my opinion. Happy Monlam! </poem>
