Universally Gathering In
The offering-litany closes with countless balustrades, towers, doorways, and windows surrounding every item already named, followed by a vow that every world attain purity and every living being reach liberation. The bodhisattva's own wholesome root then closes this entire extended passage by universally gathering in twenty distinct objects — every buddha, every dharma, every kalpa, every living being's faculties among them — each paired with its own stated reason why.
Twenty Reasons for Gathering In
Having finished naming the offerings themselves, the passage turns first to their architectural setting, then to a vow spanning purification, liberation, and the wisdom of every buddha, and finally to a closing structure repeated twenty times without variation: "it universally gathers in" some vast object, followed by "because" and a distinct reason. The device makes the wholesome root's dedication almost inventory-like — nothing is gathered in without a stated cause, and the twenty causes together sketch the entire scope of what a bodhisattva's practice is meant to touch.
如是一一諸境界中，各有無數欄楯、無數宮殿、無數樓閣、無數門闥、無數半月、無數却敵、無數窓牖、無數清淨寶、無數莊嚴具，以如是等諸供養物，恭敬供養如上所說諸佛世尊。
Within each and every one of those very realms, there are, in every case, countless balustrades, countless palaces, countless towers and pavilions, countless doorways, countless crescent-moons, countless battlements, countless windows, countless pure jewels, and countless ornaments; with offering-substances such as these, they make reverent offerings to every buddha, every World-Honored One, spoken of above.
願令一切世間皆得清淨，一切眾生咸得出離，住十力地，於一切法中得無礙法明。令一切眾生具足善根，悉得調伏，其心無量，等虛空界，往一切剎而無所至，入一切土施諸善法，常得見佛，植諸善根，成就大乘，不著諸法，具足眾善，立無量行，普入無邊一切法界，成就諸佛神通之力，得於如來一切智智。譬如無我，普攝諸法。
They wish to cause every world to attain purity entirely, every living being to attain liberation entirely, abiding upon the ground of the ten powers, and to attain the unhindered light of the Dharma within every dharma. They cause every living being to be fully endowed with wholesome roots, to be entirely tamed and subdued, their mind immeasurable, equal to the realm of empty space; going to every buddha-land yet arriving nowhere at all, entering every land to bestow every wholesome dharma, forever attaining the sight of buddhas, planting every wholesome root, accomplishing the Mahāyāna, clinging to no dharma at all, fully endowed with every wholesome quality, establishing immeasurable practices, universally entering the boundless entirety of the Dharma-realm, accomplishing the power of every buddha's spiritual superknowledge, and attaining the Tathāgata's own wisdom of all-knowing wisdom. Just as with the absence of self, they universally gather in every dharma.
我諸善根亦復如是，普攝一切諸佛如來，咸悉供養無有餘故；普攝一切無量諸法，悉能悟入無障礙故；普攝一切諸菩薩眾，究竟皆與同善根故；普攝一切諸菩薩行，以本願力皆圓滿故；普攝一切菩薩法明，了達諸法皆無礙故；普攝諸佛大神通力，成就無量諸善根故；普攝諸佛力、無所畏，發無量心滿一切故；普攝菩薩三昧辯才陀羅尼門，善能照了無二法故；普攝諸佛善巧方便，示現如來大神力故；普攝三世一切諸佛降生成道、轉正法輪、調伏眾生、入般涅槃，恭敬供養悉周遍故；普攝十方一切世界，嚴淨佛剎咸究竟故；普攝一切諸廣大劫，於中出現修菩薩行無斷絕故；普攝一切所有趣生，悉於其中現受生故；普攝一切諸眾生界，具足普賢菩薩行故；普攝一切諸惑習氣，悉以方便令清淨故；普攝一切眾生諸根，無量差別咸了知故；普攝一切眾生解欲，令離雜染得清淨故；普攝一切化眾生行，隨其所應為現身故；普攝一切應眾生道，悉入一切眾生界故；普攝一切如來智性，護持一切諸佛教故。』
My own wholesome root is likewise just the same: it universally gathers in every buddha and Tathāgata, because it makes offerings to each and every one without exception; it universally gathers in every immeasurable dharma, because it is able to awaken and enter them all without obstruction; it universally gathers in every assembly of bodhisattvas, because they ultimately share this very same wholesome root; it universally gathers in every bodhisattva practice, because through the power of their original vow every one is brought to complete fulfillment; it universally gathers in every bodhisattva dharma-illumination, because it penetrates and understands that every dharma is entirely without obstruction; it universally gathers in every buddha's own great spiritual superknowledge, because it accomplishes immeasurable wholesome roots; it universally gathers in every buddha's own powers and fearlessnesses, because it gives rise to an immeasurable mind that fills everything entirely; it universally gathers in every bodhisattva's samādhi, eloquence, and dhāraṇī-gate, because it is able to skillfully illuminate and understand the dharma of non-duality; it universally gathers in every buddha's own skillful means, because it manifests the Tathāgata's own great spiritual power; it universally gathers in every buddha of the three periods of time descending to be born, accomplishing the path, turning the wheel of the true Dharma, taming and subduing living beings, and entering parinirvāṇa, because its reverent offerings pervade everywhere entirely; it universally gathers in every world throughout the ten directions, because it adorns and purifies every buddha-land, bringing each to ultimate completion; it universally gathers in every vast kalpa, because it appears within each one to cultivate the bodhisattva practice without interruption; it universally gathers in every destiny of birth there is, because it manifests receiving birth within each and every one; it universally gathers in every realm of living beings, because it is fully endowed with the practice of Samantabhadra Bodhisattva; it universally gathers in every afflictive habit-energy, because through skillful means it causes each and every one to become pure; it universally gathers in every faculty of every living being, because it thoroughly understands their immeasurable differences entirely; it universally gathers in every understanding and desire of every living being, because it causes them to leave behind every mixed defilement and attain purity; it universally gathers in every practice of transforming living beings, because it manifests a body in accordance with whatever is fitting for each; it universally gathers in every path fit for living beings, because it enters entirely into every realm of living beings; it universally gathers in every Tathāgata's own nature of wisdom, because it upholds and protects every buddha's own teaching."
Twenty times in a row, the text pairs a claim of gathering-in with a because-clause that grounds it — never letting the scope of the claim (every buddha, every kalpa, every living being's faculties) stand on its own without a stated reason. Read together, the twenty reasons move outward from the wholesome root's relationship to buddhas and bodhisattvas, through the great sweep of time and space, and finally down to the granular texture of individual beings — their afflictions, their faculties, their desires — closing on the protection of the Buddha's own teaching itself. This closes the second of the two extended contemplations Vajra Banner Bodhisattva has been describing since the fourth dedication opened.
Part 249 Complete
This closes Part 249. Chapter 25 continues in Part 250 as the bodhisattva dedicates every wholesome root through non-attainment as skillful means, entering the Dharma-realm universally even while making no distinction at all between karma and its ripening result.