Nineteen Names for This Dedication
Resolving to dedicate exactly as every buddha of the past, present, and future has done, the bodhisattva names nineteen distinct qualifiers for this very act — the first dedication, the supreme dedication, the unequaled dedication, the dedication of great merit, the dedication free of evil, and others. Having dedicated in just this way, the bodhisattva accomplishes pure bodily, verbal, and mental karma, and forever uproots the very root of every grasping attachment.
One Act, Nineteen Names
Rather than describing nineteen different practices, this passage names nineteen honorific qualifiers for a single dedication, each emphasizing a different facet of its character — supremacy, purity, freedom from evil, uprightness, vastness. The list functions less as a taxonomy than as an accumulation of praise, gathering every possible superlative onto the one act every buddha of the three periods of time has performed in exactly the same way.
「佛子！菩薩摩訶薩復作是念：『如過去諸佛修菩薩行時，以諸善根如是迴向；未來、現在，悉亦如是。我今亦應如彼諸佛，如是發心，以諸善根而為迴向：第一迴向、勝迴向、最勝迴向、上迴向、無上迴向、無等迴向、無等等迴向、無比迴向、無對迴向、尊迴向、妙迴向、平等迴向、正直迴向、大功德迴向、廣大迴向、善迴向、清淨迴向、離惡迴向、不隨惡迴向。』
"Child of the Buddha! The bodhisattva mahāsattva again gives rise to this thought: 'Just as every buddha of the past, when cultivating the bodhisattva's own practice, dedicated every wholesome root in just this way; and the buddhas of the future and the present are entirely just the same. I too should now, just like those very buddhas, give rise to the resolve in just this way, and dedicate every wholesome root, namely: the first dedication, the supreme dedication, the most supreme dedication, the highest dedication, the unsurpassed dedication, the unequaled dedication, the dedication equal to the unequaled, the unparalleled dedication, the unopposed dedication, the honored dedication, the wondrous dedication, the equal dedication, the upright dedication, the dedication of great merit, the vast dedication, the wholesome dedication, the pure dedication, the dedication free of evil, and the dedication that follows no evil.'
菩薩如是以諸善根正迴向已，成就清淨身、語、意業，住菩薩住，無諸過失；修習善業，離身、語惡，心無瑕穢；修一切智，住廣大心，知一切法無有所作；住出世法，世法不染；分別了知無量諸業，成就迴向善巧方便，永拔一切取著根本。
The bodhisattva, having correctly dedicated every wholesome root in just this way, accomplishes pure bodily, verbal, and mental karma, abides in the bodhisattva's own abode, free of every fault; cultivating and practicing wholesome karma, leaving behind bodily and verbal evil, their mind without any blemish or defilement; cultivating all-knowing wisdom, abiding in a vast and expansive mind, knowing that no dharma has anything fabricated at all; abiding in the transcendent Dharma, undefiled by any worldly dharma; discerning and understanding immeasurable karmic deeds completely, accomplishing the skillful means of dedication, forever uprooting the very root of every grasping attachment.
"Forever uprooting the very root of every grasping attachment" closes this catalogue of praise names with a reminder of what all nineteen names ultimately serve — not celebration for its own sake, but the practical work of severing attachment at its source rather than merely trimming its visible branches. The nineteen honorifics describe what the dedication is; this final phrase describes what it does.
Part 241 Complete
This closes Part 241. Chapter 25 continues in Part 242 as the sūtra formally closes this teaching: "This is called the bodhisattva mahāsattva's third dedication, equal to every buddha" — completing the third of the ten dedications.