I Am Able
A hypothetical question pushes the fourth practice to its furthest extreme: would the bodhisattva endure Avīci hell for countless kalpas, one being at a time, so that each might encounter buddhas and reach nirvāṇa? The answer comes without hesitation — and a second, even harder question, meets the same answer.
Would You Endure Avīci Hell for This?
佛子！菩薩摩訶薩成就如是精進行已，設有人言：『汝頗能為無數世界所有眾生，以一一眾生故，於阿鼻地獄，經無數劫，備受眾苦。令彼眾生一一得值無數諸佛出興於世，以見佛故，具受眾樂，乃至入於無餘涅槃，汝乃當成阿耨多羅三藐三菩提。能爾？不耶？』答言：『我能。』
Son of the Buddha, once a bodhisattva-mahāsattva has accomplished such a practice of diligence as this, suppose someone were to say to them: "Are you truly able, for the sake of the living beings of countless worlds, for the sake of each and every one of them, to undergo, within the Avīci hell, countless kalpas, fully enduring every kind of suffering — so that those living beings, each and every one, might come to encounter countless buddhas appearing within the world, and, through seeing those buddhas, fully receive every happiness, and, in the end, enter into nirvāṇa without remainder — and only then would you yourself go on to attain unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening? Are you able to do this, or not?" They answer, saying: "I am able."
設復有人作如是言：『有無量阿僧祇大海，汝當以一毛端滴之令盡；有無量阿僧祇世界，盡抹為塵。彼滴及塵，一一數之，悉知其數。為眾生故，經爾許劫，於念念中受苦不斷。』菩薩不以聞此語故而生一念悔恨之心，但更增上歡喜踊躍，深自慶幸得大善利：『以我力故，令彼眾生永脫諸苦。』菩薩以此所行方便，於一切世界中，令一切眾生乃至究竟無餘涅槃。是名菩薩摩訶薩第四無屈橈行。
Suppose further that someone were to say: "There are immeasurable asaṃkhyeya great oceans, and you must, drop by drop, with the tip of a single hair, bring them entirely to their end; there are immeasurable asaṃkhyeya worlds, and you must grind them entirely into motes of dust. And every one of those drops and every one of those motes, you must count one by one, and know their number entirely. For the sake of living beings, you must endure, through that very number of kalpas, unbroken suffering in moment after moment." The bodhisattva, upon hearing these words, gives rise to not even a single thought of regret or resentment, but only further increases their own joy and exultation, deeply rejoicing to themselves at having obtained such a great and wholesome benefit: "Through my own power, I shall cause those living beings to be forever freed from every suffering." The bodhisattva, through this very skillful means they practice, causes, throughout every world, every living being to reach, in the end, nirvāṇa without remainder. This is called the bodhisattva-mahāsattva's own fourth practice, the practice of never yielding.
The second hypothetical escalates past anything a hearer could picture concretely — emptying oceans drop by drop with a hair's tip, grinding worlds to dust and counting every grain, then multiplying suffering by that unimaginable count — precisely because the point is not to describe an actual task but to test whether any conceivable magnitude could exhaust the bodhisattva's own resolve. The answer given is not stoic resignation but its opposite: increased joy at the size of the good this suffering would accomplish.
Part 136 Complete
This closes Part 136. Chapter 21 continues in Part 137 with the fifth practice, the practice free of delusion and confusion.