Like the Moon in Water
The bodhisattva vows to dedicate every wholesome root exactly as every buddha and bodhisattva of the past has done, without relying on form, clinging to feeling, or grasping at consciousness — leaving behind the six sense-bases entirely and abiding at the very limit of reality, without any mark and apart from every mark. This dedication rests on knowing that whatever is cultivated is like an illusion, a shadow, the moon reflected in water, or a face reflected in a mirror, manifested through the coming together of causes and conditions all the way up to the Tathāgata's own ultimate ground.
Without a Single Mark, Yet Only One Mark
The passage moves through a careful sequence of non-attachments — to the five aggregates, to worldly dharmas, to every discriminating view — before arriving at a phrase that resists paraphrase: abiding at the very limit of reality, without any mark and apart from every mark, being only a single mark. The closing simile chain then grounds this abstraction in familiar images: whatever the bodhisattva cultivates is like an illusion, a shadow, the moon reflected in water, or a face reflected in a mirror — vivid to perception, yet without independent substance.
復作是念：『如過去諸佛菩薩所行，恭敬供養一切諸佛，度諸眾生令永出離，勤加修習一切善根，悉以迴向而無所著。所謂：不依色，不著受，無倒想，不作行，不取識，捨離六處；不住世法，樂出世間；知一切法皆如虛空，無所從來，不生不滅，無有真實，無所染著；遠離一切諸分別見，不動不轉，不失不壞；住於實際，無相離相，唯是一相；
Again they give rise to this thought: "Just as every buddha and bodhisattva of the past has practiced, revering and making offerings to every buddha, liberating living beings and causing them to forever escape, diligently cultivating and practicing every wholesome root, and dedicating all of it entirely without any attachment. Namely: not relying on form, not clinging to feeling, without inverted perception, not fabricating mental formations, not grasping at consciousness, leaving behind the six sense-bases; not abiding in any worldly dharma, delighting in the transcendent; knowing that every dharma is entirely like empty space, coming from nowhere at all, neither arising nor ceasing, without any true reality, and defiled by nothing at all; far removed from every discriminating view, unmoving and unchanging, never lost and never destroyed; abiding at the very limit of reality, without any mark and apart from every mark, being only a single mark;
如是深入一切法性，常樂習行普門善根，悉見一切諸佛眾會。如彼過去一切如來善根迴向，我亦如是而為迴向；解如是法，證如是法，依如是法，發心修習，不違法相；知所修行，如幻如影，如水中月，如鏡中像，因緣和合之所顯現，乃至如來究竟之地。』
entering deeply into the nature of every dharma in just this way, forever delighting in practicing the wholesome root of the universal gateway, beholding every assembly of every buddha entirely. Just as every Tathāgata of the past has dedicated their own wholesome root, I too dedicate in just this very way; understanding this very Dharma, realizing this very Dharma, relying on this very Dharma, I give rise to the resolve to cultivate and practice it, never contradicting the mark of any dharma; knowing that whatever I cultivate and practice is like an illusion, like a shadow, like the moon in water, like a reflection in a mirror, manifested through the coming together of causes and conditions, all the way up to the Tathāgata's own ultimate ground."
"Without any mark and apart from every mark, being only a single mark" holds together three claims that would ordinarily seem incompatible — no mark, apart from mark, and yet a single mark — in a formula this sūtra returns to whenever it wants to point at reality's own nature without letting the pointing itself become one more mark to grasp. The simile chain that follows is not a retreat from this difficulty into easier language, but a demonstration: an illusion, a shadow, and a reflection are each, in their own way, marks with nothing behind them.
Part 240 Complete
This closes Part 240. Chapter 25 continues in Part 241 as the bodhisattva names nineteen distinct qualifiers for this very dedication — the first dedication, the supreme dedication, the unequaled dedication, and others — before this section of the third dedication reaches its own conclusion.