Neither This Shore, Nor the Far Shore
The eighth practice, difficult to attain, opens with ten rare and hard-won wholesome roots — and turns to one of the sūtra's most enduring images: a boatman who abides on neither shore nor in the current between them, and for that very reason is able to ferry others across without ever resting.
The Eighth Practice: Difficult to Attain
「佛子！何等為菩薩摩訶薩難得行？此菩薩成就難得善根、難伏善根、最勝善根、不可壞善根、無能過善根、不思議善根、無盡善根、自在力善根、大威德善根、與一切佛同一性善根。此菩薩修諸行時，於佛法中得最勝解，於佛菩提得廣大解，於菩薩願未曾休息，盡一切劫心無疲倦，於一切苦不生厭離，一切眾魔所不能動，一切諸佛之所護念，具行一切菩薩苦行，修菩薩行精勤匪懈，於大乘願恒不退轉。是菩薩安住此難得行已，於念念中，能轉阿僧祇劫生死，而不捨菩薩大願。若有眾生，承事供養，乃至見聞，皆於阿耨多羅三藐三菩提得不退轉。此菩薩雖了眾生非有，而不捨一切眾生界。」
"Son of the Buddha! What is a bodhisattva-mahāsattva's own practice difficult to attain? This bodhisattva accomplishes wholesome roots difficult to attain, wholesome roots difficult to subdue, most supreme wholesome roots, indestructible wholesome roots, wholesome roots that nothing can surpass, inconceivable wholesome roots, inexhaustible wholesome roots, wholesome roots of sovereign power, wholesome roots of great awesome virtue, and wholesome roots sharing one and the same nature with every buddha. This bodhisattva, cultivating every practice, attains the most supreme understanding within the buddha-dharma, attains a vast and expansive understanding of the Buddha's own bodhi, has never once rested from the bodhisattva's own vows, their mind never wearied through the whole of every kalpa, never giving rise to aversion or the wish to flee from any suffering at all, unmoved by every host of Māra, held in mind and guarded by every buddha, fully practicing every ascetic conduct of the bodhisattva, cultivating the bodhisattva's own practice diligently and without slackening, forever never turning back from the Mahāyāna's own vow. This bodhisattva, having abided settled in this practice difficult to attain, is able, moment after moment, to turn back asaṃkhyeya kalpas of birth-and-death, and yet never lets go of the bodhisattva's own great vow. If there is any living being who attends upon and makes offerings to them, or even merely sees or hears them, all of them attain never turning back in unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening. This bodhisattva, though they thoroughly understand that living beings do not truly exist, never once abandons the whole realm of living beings."
譬如船師，不住此岸，不住彼岸，不住中流，而能運度此岸眾生至於彼岸，以往返無休息故。菩薩摩訶薩亦復如是，不住生死，不住涅槃，亦復不住生死中流，而能運度此岸眾生，置於彼岸安隱無畏、無憂惱處。
Just as a boatman does not abide on this shore, does not abide on the far shore, and does not abide in the middle of the stream, and yet is able to ferry living beings from this shore across to the far shore, because they go back and forth without ever resting, so too is a bodhisattva-mahāsattva: they do not abide in birth-and-death, do not abide in nirvāṇa, and likewise do not abide in the middle stream between birth-and-death and nirvāṇa, and yet are able to ferry living beings on this shore across, setting them upon the far shore, a place of security, fearlessness, and freedom from sorrow and affliction.
The boatman simile resolves a tension the chapter has been building since the sixth practice: how can a bodhisattva who clings to nothing, not even to the notion that beings truly exist, still keep working tirelessly on their behalf? The boatman's own indifference to both shores is exactly what frees them to make the crossing endlessly — attachment to either bank would eventually exhaust them, but belonging to neither lets the ferrying continue without limit.
Part 144 Complete
This closes Part 144. Chapter 21 continues in Part 145.