無量壽經優婆提舍願生偈註 2.27

2.27

Dedication of merit has two aspects: first, the outgoing aspect; second, the returning aspect. As for the outgoing aspect, one takes one's own merit and turns it over in bestowal to all sentient beings, making the aspiration that together they may be reborn in that Pure Land of Peace and Bliss of Amitābha Tathāgata. As for the returning aspect, having been reborn in that land, one attains the perfection of the power of skillful means of śamatha and vipaśyanā, and returns into the dense forest of birth-and-death to teach and transform all sentient beings so that together they turn toward the Buddha path. Whether going out or returning, both are for the sake of rescuing sentient beings and ferrying them across the ocean of birth-and-death; therefore it is said: 'with dedication of merit foremost, so as to achieve the perfection of the mind of great compassion.'