Nine Causes of Inexhaustible Merit
Ten distinct acts of skillful-means dedication — toward buddha-lands, bodhisattvas, every Tathāgata, bodhi, vast vows, the path of escape, and the enduring vision of buddhas ever arising in the world — give way to a discipline of refusing every discrimination: self from what belongs to self, cause from effect, birth-and-death from nirvāṇa. The passage closes by naming nine distinct causes of what makes this dedication's own wholesome root genuinely inexhaustible.
Ten Acts, Then No Discrimination at All
The ten skillful-means dedications open onto a stark discipline of non-discrimination — not merely refusing to cling to things, but refusing to even draw the ordinary distinctions that make clinging possible: self from what belongs to self, karma from its fruit, birth-and-death from nirvāṇa. The passage then closes by finally explaining this dedication's own name: nine distinct causes, each ending "they attain an inexhaustible wholesome root," together defining what "inexhaustible" actually means in practice.
「佛子！菩薩摩訶薩以諸善根，方便迴向一切佛剎，方便迴向一切菩薩，方便迴向一切如來，方便迴向一切佛菩提，方便迴向一切廣大願，方便迴向一切出要道，方便迴向淨一切眾生界，方便迴向於一切世界常見諸佛出興於世，方便迴向常見如來壽命無量，方便迴向常見諸佛遍周法界轉無障礙不退法輪。佛子！菩薩摩訶薩以諸善根如是迴向時，普入一切佛國土故，一切佛剎皆悉清淨；普至一切眾生界故，一切菩薩皆悉清淨；普願一切諸佛國土佛出興故，一切法界、一切佛土諸如來身超然出現。佛子！菩薩摩訶薩以如是等無比迴向趣薩婆若，其心廣大，猶如虛空，無有限量，入不思議，知一切業及以果報皆悉寂滅；心常平等，無有邊際，普能遍入一切法界。
"Child of the Buddha! The bodhisattva mahāsattva, with every wholesome root, dedicates through skillful means toward every buddha-land; dedicates through skillful means toward every bodhisattva; dedicates through skillful means toward every Tathāgata; dedicates through skillful means toward every buddha's own bodhi; dedicates through skillful means toward every vast and great vow; dedicates through skillful means toward every path of essential escape; dedicates through skillful means toward purifying every realm of living beings; dedicates through skillful means so that throughout every world they forever behold every buddha arising in the world; dedicates through skillful means so that they forever behold the Tathāgata's own immeasurable lifespan; dedicates through skillful means so that they forever behold every buddha turning, throughout the entire Dharma-realm, the unobstructed, non-retrogressing wheel of the Dharma. Child of the Buddha! When the bodhisattva mahāsattva dedicates every wholesome root in just this way, because they universally enter every buddha's own land, every buddha-land is entirely purified; because they universally reach every realm of living beings, every bodhisattva is entirely purified; because they universally wish for every buddha to arise within every buddha-land, the very bodies of every Tathāgata, throughout every Dharma-realm and every buddha-land, transcendently appear. Child of the Buddha! The bodhisattva mahāsattva, through this incomparable dedication such as this, advances toward all-knowing wisdom; their mind is vast, just like empty space, without any limit or measure at all; they enter the inconceivable, knowing that every karmic deed together with its resultant fruit is entirely quiescent; their mind is forever equal, without any boundary at all, universally able to enter the entire Dharma-realm.
佛子！菩薩摩訶薩如是迴向時，不分別我及以我所，不分別佛及以佛法，不分別剎及以嚴淨，不分別眾生及以調伏，不分別業及業果報，不著於思及思所起；不壞因，不壞果，不取事，不取法；不謂生死有分別，不謂涅槃恒寂靜，不謂如來證佛境界；無有少法，與法同止。
Child of the Buddha! When the bodhisattva mahāsattva dedicates in just this way, they do not discriminate self from what belongs to self, do not discriminate buddha from the buddha-dharma, do not discriminate a land from its adornment and purification, do not discriminate living beings from their taming and subduing, do not discriminate karma from the karmic fruit and its ripening, and are not attached to intention or to what arises from intention; they do not destroy cause, do not destroy effect, do not grasp at phenomena, do not grasp at dharma; they do not claim that birth-and-death admits of discrimination, do not claim that nirvāṇa is forever quiescent, do not claim that the Tathāgata has realized a buddha-state; there is not even the slightest dharma that abides together with dharma.
佛子！菩薩摩訶薩如是迴向時，以諸善根普施眾生，決定成熟，平等教化；無相、無緣、無稱量、無虛妄，遠離一切分別取著。菩薩摩訶薩如是迴向已，得無盡善根。所謂：念三世一切諸佛故，得無盡善根；念一切菩薩故，得無盡善根；淨諸佛剎故，得無盡善根；淨一切眾生界故，得無盡善根；深入法界故，得無盡善根；修無量心等虛空界故，得無盡善根；深解一切佛境界故，得無盡善根；於菩薩業勤修習故，得無盡善根；了達三世故，得無盡善根。
Child of the Buddha! When the bodhisattva mahāsattva dedicates in just this way, they universally bestow every wholesome root upon living beings, decisively bringing them to maturity, teaching and transforming them equally; without mark, without condition, without measure, without falsehood, they leave far behind every discrimination and every clinging attachment. Once the bodhisattva mahāsattva has dedicated in just this way, they attain an inexhaustible wholesome root. Namely: because they are mindful of every buddha of the three periods of time, they attain an inexhaustible wholesome root; because they are mindful of every bodhisattva, they attain an inexhaustible wholesome root; because they purify every buddha-land, they attain an inexhaustible wholesome root; because they purify every realm of living beings, they attain an inexhaustible wholesome root; because they deeply enter the Dharma-realm, they attain an inexhaustible wholesome root; because they cultivate an immeasurable mind equal to the realm of empty space, they attain an inexhaustible wholesome root; because they deeply understand every buddha's own state, they attain an inexhaustible wholesome root; because they diligently cultivate and practice the bodhisattva's own deeds, they attain an inexhaustible wholesome root; because they penetrate and understand the three periods of time, they attain an inexhaustible wholesome root.
Only here, roughly halfway through the fifth dedication's exposition, does the sūtra finally explain what makes this dedication "inexhaustible" — not an inexhaustible object being dedicated, but nine distinct causes, each rooted in mindfulness, purification, or deep understanding, that keep generating wholesome root without limit. Inexhaustibility, on this account, is a property of the practice itself rather than of any treasury being drawn upon.
Part 256 Complete
This closes Part 256. Chapter 25 continues in Part 257 as the bodhisattva sees that no living being, no lifespan, and no agent of action can be found within any dharma, seeing every dharma as arising from conditions and abiding nowhere at all.