Neither Language Nor Its Absence
Vajra Banner Bodhisattva's verse reaches its final stanzas, describing a bodhisattva who neither grasps at what living beings say nor relies on the path of language, yet likewise does not cling to the absence of language either. Every Tathāgata throughout the ten directions is shown knowing that everything is entirely empty and quiescent without ever giving rise to even a single thought of emptiness — a final balance that completes the second dedication.
Not Even a Thought of Emptiness
The verse's closing lines refuse two opposite errors at once: grasping at language, and clinging to the absence of language as though that absence were itself a position to hold. The same refusal appears in its treatment of emptiness — every Tathāgata knows that everything is entirely empty and quiescent, and yet never gives rise to even a single thought of emptiness, since a thought of emptiness would itself become one more thing to grasp.
菩薩專心念諸佛，無上智慧巧方便，
如佛一切無所依，願我修成此功德。
專心救護於一切，令其遠離眾惡業，
如是饒益諸群生，繫念思惟未曾捨。
住於智地守護法，不以餘乘取涅槃，
唯願得佛無上道，菩薩如是善迴向。
The bodhisattva single-mindedly recollects every buddha, their unsurpassed wisdom and skillful means; just as the Buddha relies on nothing at all, I vow to cultivate and accomplish this very merit. Single-mindedly rescuing and protecting all, causing them to leave behind every evil karmic deed; benefiting every kind of living being in just this way, their mindfulness and contemplation never once abandoned. Abiding in the ground of wisdom, guarding and protecting the Dharma, never taking nirvāṇa through any other vehicle; wishing only to attain the Buddha's own unsurpassed path, the bodhisattva dedicates skillfully in just this way.
不取眾生所言說，一切有為虛妄事，
雖復不依言語道，亦復不著無言說。
十方所有諸如來，了達諸法無有餘，
雖知一切皆空寂，而不於空起心念。
以一莊嚴嚴一切，亦不於法生分別，
如是開悟諸群生，一切無性無所觀。」
Not grasping at whatever living beings say, every conditioned matter being false and unreal; although they likewise do not rely on the path of language, they likewise do not cling to the absence of language either. Every Tathāgata throughout the ten directions penetrates and understands every dharma, leaving nothing at all remaining; although they know that everything is entirely empty and quiescent, they do not give rise to even a thought of emptiness. With a single adornment they adorn everything, and likewise give rise to no discrimination at all regarding any dharma; awakening every kind of living being in just this way, understanding that everything is without any nature at all, and observing nothing at all."
"They likewise do not cling to the absence of language either" is a small phrase carrying a large warning — a teaching that spends this much effort dismantling attachment to words risks producing a new attachment to wordlessness itself, treated as though silence were a purer possession than speech. The verse closes this loophole explicitly, just as it closes the parallel loophole around emptiness: neither position, once turned into something to hold onto, survives this teaching's own standard.
Second Dedication Complete — 第二不壞迴向
With this verse's close, the second of the ten dedications — the indestructible dedication — is now complete. Across its exposition, Vajra Banner Bodhisattva named ten kinds of unbreakable faith, described a bodhisattva who dedicates wholesome roots through an extended vow, offered a vast litany of asaṃkhyeya gifts to every buddha, catalogued twelve further qualifications of non-attachment, and traced how the bodhisattva remains unshaken while following the course of birth and death — understanding karma as illusion, retribution as reflection, and every practice as a shadow — before this closing verse gathered the whole teaching into gatha form.
Part 234 Complete
This closes Part 234 and the second dedication. Chapter 25 continues in Part 235 with the third dedication — the dedication equal to every buddha (等一切佛迴向) — as Vajra Banner Bodhisattva begins to describe a bodhisattva who follows the very same course of dedication that every buddha of the past, present, and future has followed.