The Realm of Living Beings Is Not Two
The eighth practice continues with a bodhisattva who clings to no number of living beings, neither one nor many, because the realm of living beings and the Dharma-realm are not two at all — and compares their own inexhaustible work to fire drilled from wood, laboring without limit yet never once extinguished.
Not One, Not Many, Not Two
亦不於眾生數而有所著，不捨一眾生著多眾生，不捨多眾生著一眾生；不增眾生界，不減眾生界；不生眾生界，不滅眾生界；不盡眾生界，不長眾生界；不分別眾生界，不二眾生界。何以故？菩薩深入眾生界如法界，眾生界、法界無有二。無二法中，無增、無減，無生、無滅，無有、無無，無取、無依，無著、無二。何以故？菩薩了一切法、法界無二故。
Nor do they cling to anything regarding the number of living beings, never abandoning one living being to cling to many, and never abandoning many living beings to cling to one; never increasing the realm of living beings, never diminishing the realm of living beings; never giving rise to the realm of living beings, never extinguishing the realm of living beings; never exhausting the realm of living beings, never extending the realm of living beings; never discriminating the realm of living beings, never treating the realm of living beings as two. Why is this? Because the bodhisattva enters deeply into the realm of living beings just as into the Dharma-realm, and the realm of living beings and the Dharma-realm are not two. Within this non-dual dharma, there is no increase and no decrease, no arising and no ceasing, no existence and no non-existence, no grasping and no reliance, no attachment and no duality. Why is this? Because the bodhisattva understands that every dharma and the Dharma-realm are not two.
菩薩如是以善方便入深法界，住於無相，以清淨相莊嚴其身，了法無性而能分別一切法相，不取眾生而能了知眾生之數，不著世界而現身佛剎，不分別法而善入佛法，深達義理而廣演言教，了一切法離欲真際而不斷菩薩道、不退菩薩行，常勤修習無盡之行，自在入於清淨法界。譬如鑽木以出於火，火事無量而火不滅。菩薩如是化眾生事，無有窮盡，而在世間常住不滅；非究竟，非不究竟；非取，非不取；非依，非無依；非世法，非佛法；非凡夫，非得果。
The bodhisattva, through skillful means such as this, enters deeply into the profound Dharma-realm, abiding in signlessness, and yet adorns their own body with pure marks; understanding that dharmas have no fixed nature, and yet able to discriminate every mark of every dharma; grasping at no living being, and yet able to fully understand the number of living beings; clinging to no world, and yet manifesting their own body within buddha-lands; discriminating no dharma, and yet skillfully entering the buddha-dharma; penetrating deeply into meaning and principle, and yet broadly expounding verbal teachings; understanding that every dharma is free of desire, at the very limit of reality, and yet never once cutting off the bodhisattva path, never turning back from the bodhisattva's own conduct, forever diligently cultivating and practicing an inexhaustible conduct, entering with sovereign freedom into the pure Dharma-realm. Just as one drills into wood in order to produce fire, and the work of that fire is immeasurable, and yet the fire is never extinguished, so too is this bodhisattva's own work of transforming living beings — it has no limit at all, and yet remains forever unceasing within the world; neither ultimate nor not ultimate; neither grasping nor not grasping; neither relying nor without reliance; neither a worldly dharma nor a buddha-dharma; neither an ordinary being nor one who has attained a fruit.
Fire drilled from wood is a well-chosen image for this specific point: each act of friction produces heat that dissipates, and yet the capacity to produce fire again is never used up by the previous fire's passing. The bodhisattva's work with living beings is described the same way — each act of teaching completes and ends, and yet nothing about the capacity to keep teaching is diminished by having already taught.
Part 145 Complete
This closes Part 145. Chapter 21 continues in Part 146.