Sūtras for Wellbeing: Ancient Buddhist Prayers for Aspiration and Protection

Sūtras for Wellbeing

What do ancient Buddhist sūtras have to say about wellbeing today? In this six-part short video series, we explore selected sūtras and the practical insights they offer for navigating modern life. Through brief, accessible reflections, each episode highlights how the Buddha’s words can support clarity, balance, and inner resilience.

Episode 2 | Dedications “Fulfilling All Aspirations” and “Protecting All Beings”

In this video, 84000 editor Nathaniel Rich introduces two distinctive practice texts from the Tibetan Buddhist Canon, Fulfilling All Aspirations and Protecting All Beings. Although classified as the Buddha’s own speech, these works function primarily as liturgical prayers centered on confession, rejoicing, and the cultivation of a bodhisattva’s altruistic mindset. The video highlights an important scholarly insight: Protecting All Beings appears to provide a direct canonical source for teachings later systematized in the mind training (lojong) tradition, which was long believed to lack explicit scriptural foundations in the Canon. By translating these texts, 84000 makes available ancient contemplative tools that support emotional resilience and compassion in times of difficulty, revealing the Tibetan Canon as a vast and still largely unexplored repository of teachings with profound relevance for contemporary spiritual life.

Listen to:

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English | "The Dedication: Fulfilling All Aspirations" recited by Jigme Khyentse Rinpoche

84000 · Ep. 2.1 | English | "The Dedication: Fulfilling All Aspirations" recited by Jigme Khyentse Rinpoche

Tibetan | "The Dedication: Fulfilling All Aspirations" recited by Pema Wangyal Rinpoche

84000 · Ep. 2.1 | Tibetan | "The Dedication: Fulfilling All Aspirations" recited by Pema Wangyal Rinpoche

English | "The Dedication: Protecting All Beings" recited by Jigme Khyentse Rinpoche

84000 · Ep. 2.2 | English | "The Dedication: Protecting All Beings" recited by Jigme Khyentse Rinpoche

Tibetan | "The Dedication: Protecting All Beings" recited by Pema Wangyal Rinpoche

84000 · Ep. 2.2 | Tibetan | "The Dedication: Protecting All Beings" recited by Pema Wangyal Rinpoche

View other episodes:

• Episode 1: On Entering the City of Vaiśālī
• Episode 2: Dedications “Fulfilling All Aspirations” and “Protecting All Beings”
• Episode 3: Tara Who Protects from the Eight Dangers
• Episode 4: The Dhāraṇī of Pārṇaśavarī
• Episode 5: Praise to Tara with Twenty-One Verses of Homage
• Episode 6: The Aspiration Prayer from “Destroyer of the Great Trichiliocosm”