This heading already catalogues the Theravada Pali dedication formula recited across almsgiving and merit-making occasions, a brief, largely fixed line wishing that the merit generated be shared with all beings. Set beside the Bodhicaryavatara's closing chapter, the contrast in scale and specificity is stark. Where the Theravada formula compresses the dedication into a single repeated sentence, chapter ten of the Bodhicaryavatara runs to dozens of verses, naming specific categories of suffering, illness, fear, poverty, imprisonment, exile, and wishing the alleviation of each in turn before moving to broader dedications for the flourishing of the Buddhist teaching itself and the wellbeing of all sentient beings without exception.
The difference reflects more than length. The Theravada formula functions as a fixed liturgical unit, recited in essentially the same words at the close of an act of merit regardless of context. Shantideva's chapter functions as an extended meditation in its own right, its specificity inviting the reciter to dwell deliberately on the particular kinds of suffering named rather than pass quickly through a formula. Both are genuinely merit transference in the technical Buddhist sense, generated merit deliberately directed outward rather than kept, but they represent two different liturgical registers within the same broader Buddhist practice, one compact and repeatable, the other expansive and contemplative, which is exactly why this heading now holds one example of each rather than two versions of the same thing.