Until Not One Living Being Is Left Unsatisfied

"Son of the Buddha! What is a bodhisattva-mahāsattva's own practice of joy? Son of the Buddha, this bodhisattva becomes a great giver, able to give away everything they possess entirely; their mind is equal, without any regret or reluctance, hoping for no recompense, seeking no renown, coveting no gain; they do this only to save and protect every living being, to gather in every living being, and to benefit every living being; to study what every buddha originally cultivated and practiced, to hold in mind what every buddha originally cultivated and practiced, to delight in and cherish what every buddha originally cultivated and practiced, to purify what every buddha originally cultivated and practiced, to increase what every buddha originally cultivated and practiced, to uphold and sustain what every buddha originally cultivated and practiced, to manifest what every buddha originally cultivated and practiced, and to expound what every buddha originally cultivated and practiced, causing living beings to leave suffering behind and attain happiness.

Son of the Buddha, when a bodhisattva-mahāsattva cultivates this practice, they cause every living being to become joyful and delighted; wherever, throughout every land and region, there is a place of poverty and want, through the power of their own vow, they go and are born there, becoming noble, exalted, and immensely wealthy, their treasures inexhaustible. Suppose that, moment after moment, immeasurable, countless living beings were to come to that bodhisattva's own place and say to them: 'Kind one! We are destitute and impoverished, with nothing at all to sustain us; starving, weak, and afflicted, our very lives are about to fail. We beg only that you, out of compassion and pity, give us the flesh of your own body, so that we may obtain food, and preserve our lives!' At that time, the bodhisattva at once gives it to them, causing them to become joyful, their heart fully satisfied.

Though immeasurable hundreds of thousands of living beings come in this way to beg of them, the bodhisattva, toward them, never once retreats or falters, but only further increases their own mind of loving-kindness and compassion. Because these living beings all come to beg of them, the bodhisattva, upon seeing them, becomes doubly joyful, and reflects in this way: 'I have obtained a wholesome benefit! These living beings are my very field of merit, my very good friends, who, without my seeking or requesting it, have come to teach me to enter into the buddha-dharma. I should now cultivate and study in just this way, never going against the heart of any living being at all.'

They further reflect: 'I vow that every wholesome root I have already produced, am now producing, and shall come to produce, will cause me, in every world to come, among every living being, to receive a vast and expansive body, and, with the flesh of that body, to fully satisfy every being suffering from hunger. And even should there be but a single small living being not yet fully satisfied, I vow never to give up my life, and the flesh cut from my body will likewise never be exhausted. Through this wholesome root, I vow to attain unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening, and to realize the great nirvāṇa; and I vow that every living being who eats of my flesh will likewise attain unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening, obtaining the wisdom of equality, being fully endowed with every buddha-dharma, broadly performing the Buddha's own work, and entering, in the end, into nirvāṇa without remainder. If there is even a single living being whose heart is not yet satisfied, I shall never, in the end, attain unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening.'