If I Do Not Mature Living Beings, Who Will?
The bodhisattva reasons through the practice's own logic to its conclusion: to seek awakening alone while living beings remain trapped, blind, and unguided would not be fitting — and vows to mature them first, however many kalpas beyond telling it takes, closing the sixth practice and completing fascicle nineteen.
Blind and in Darkness, Without Any Eye
菩薩爾時復作是念：『我不成熟眾生，誰當成熟？我不調伏眾生，誰當調伏？我不教化眾生，誰當教化？我不覺悟眾生，誰當覺悟？我不清淨眾生，誰當清淨？此我所宜、我所應作。』復作是念：『若我自解此甚深法，唯我一人於阿耨多羅三藐三菩提獨得解脫；而諸眾生盲冥無目，入大險道，為諸煩惱之所纏縛。如重病人恒受苦痛，處貪愛獄不能自出，不離地獄、餓鬼、畜生、閻羅王界，不能滅苦，不捨惡業，常處癡闇，不見真實，輪迴生死，無得出離，住於八難，眾垢所著，種種煩惱覆障其心，邪見所迷，不行正道。』
The bodhisattva, at that time, further reflects in this way: "If I do not mature living beings, who will mature them? If I do not tame living beings, who will tame them? If I do not teach and transform living beings, who will teach and transform them? If I do not awaken living beings, who will awaken them? If I do not purify living beings, who will purify them? This is what is fitting for me, and what I myself should do." They further reflect: "Were I to understand this most profound Dharma for myself alone, and I, this one person alone, were to attain liberation in unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening — while every living being remains blind and in darkness, without any eye, entering upon the great and perilous road, entangled and bound by every affliction — like one gravely ill, forever enduring pain and suffering, dwelling within the prison of craving and desire, unable to free themselves, never leaving behind the realms of hell, of hungry ghosts, of animals, and of King Yama, unable to extinguish their own suffering, unable to give up their own evil karma, forever dwelling in delusion's own darkness, never seeing what is truly real, revolving through birth-and-death, with no way to escape, abiding within the eight difficulties, covered with every kind of defilement, their mind obstructed and veiled by every kind of affliction, deluded by wrong views, never walking the right path."
菩薩如是觀諸眾生，作是念言：『若此眾生未成熟、未調伏，捨而取證阿耨多羅三藐三菩提，是所不應。我當先化眾生，於不可說不可說劫行菩薩行；未成熟者，先令成熟；未調伏者，先令調伏。』
The bodhisattva, contemplating living beings in this way, then reflects, saying: "Were these living beings still unmatured, still untamed, and I were to abandon them and go on to realize unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening for myself, this would not be fitting at all. I shall first transform living beings, cultivating and practicing the bodhisattva's own conduct through kalpas beyond telling, beyond all telling; those not yet matured, I shall first cause to be matured; those not yet tamed, I shall first cause to be tamed."
是菩薩住此行時，諸天、魔、梵、沙門、婆羅門，一切世間乾闥婆、阿脩羅等，若有得見，暫同住止，恭敬尊重，承事供養，及暫耳聞，一經心者；如是所作，悉不唐捐，必定當成阿耨多羅三藐三菩提。是名菩薩摩訶薩第六善現行。
When this bodhisattva abides within this practice, whether it is the devas, Māra, Brahmā, śramaṇas, or brāhmaṇas, or whether it is the gandharvas, asuras, and every other being of the whole world — whoever attains a sight of them, dwells with them even briefly, reveres and honors them, attends upon and makes offerings to them, or even merely hears them for a moment, once their mind has passed through this encounter, whatever they have thus done is never wasted in vain, and they will surely, in the end, attain unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening. This is called the bodhisattva-mahāsattva's own sixth practice, the practice of skillful manifestation.
Five parallel questions — "if I do not mature them, who will? if I do not tame them, who will? if I do not teach them, who will?" — turn what could be an abstract vow into something closer to a personal accounting: not a general aspiration toward compassion, but a specific refusal to let the work fall to someone else. The description of living beings that follows, "blind and in darkness, without any eye," is unusually stark even by this chapter's standards, and it is precisely that starkness the bodhisattva gives as the reason self-liberation alone would be unfitting.
Fascicle 19 Complete
This closes the sixth practice, skillful manifestation, and with it fascicle nineteen of the Avataṃsaka Sūtra. Chapter twenty-one continues into fascicle twenty with the seventh practice, the practice free of attachment, in Part 141.