Not Even a Single Word of Praise
The eighth practice closes with a striking reversal: the bodhisattva actively seeks out a world of the ungrateful, the deluded, and the malicious as exactly the place to work — and would leave a world already full of wise and grateful people to others, wanting from beings nothing at all in return, not even a thread, not even a word of praise.
Choosing the Thankless World
復作是念：『世間眾生不知恩報，更相讎對，邪見執著，迷惑顛倒，愚癡無智，無有信心，隨逐惡友，起諸惡慧，貪愛、無明、種種煩惱皆悉充滿，是我所修菩薩行處。設有知恩、聰明、慧解，及善知識充滿世間，我不於中修菩薩行。何以故？我於眾生，無所適莫，無所冀望，乃至不求一縷一毫，及以一字讚美之言。盡未來劫，修菩薩行，未曾一念自為於己；但欲度脫一切眾生，令其清淨，永得出離。何以故？於眾生中為明導者，法應如是，不取不求；但為眾生修菩薩道，令其得至安隱彼岸，成阿耨多羅三藐三菩提。』是名菩薩摩訶薩第八難得行。
They further reflect: "Living beings of the world, not knowing how to repay kindness, treat one another as enemies, holding fast to wrong views, deluded and inverted, foolish and without wisdom, without any faith at all, following after evil companions, giving rise to every evil understanding, filled entirely with craving, ignorance, and every kind of affliction — this is exactly the very place where I should cultivate the bodhisattva's own conduct. Were the world instead filled with those who know how to repay kindness, who are wise and understanding, and with good spiritual friends, I would not cultivate the bodhisattva's own conduct there. Why is this? Toward living beings, I hold no preference and no aversion, hope for nothing at all, and seek not even a single thread, a single hair's breadth, or a single word of praise. Through kalpas to the very end of the future, I shall cultivate the bodhisattva's own conduct, never once, for even a single thought, acting for my own sake; I wish only to cross over and liberate every living being, causing them to become pure, and to attain release forever. Why is this? For one who serves as a bright guide among living beings, the Dharma should be exactly this — grasping at nothing, seeking nothing; cultivating the bodhisattva path only for the sake of living beings, causing them to reach the secure far shore, and to accomplish unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening." This is called the bodhisattva-mahāsattva's own eighth practice, the practice difficult to attain.
"Were the world instead filled with those who know how to repay kindness... I would not cultivate the bodhisattva's own conduct there" is a genuinely surprising claim: not that the bodhisattva merely tolerates a difficult world, but that difficulty itself is the qualification for where their own work belongs. Paired with the earlier insistence on wanting nothing back, not even a word of praise, the practice's own name — difficult to attain — describes not just the rarity of the wholesome roots that open this practice, but the rarity of a motive this thoroughly free of any expectation of return.
Part 147 Complete
This closes Part 147. Chapter 21 continues in Part 148 with the ninth practice, the practice of wholesome dharmas.