No Real Living Being to Be Spoken Of
The verse turns from describing bodhisattvas and buddha-lands to a sustained philosophical close: no dharma with form or without form, no karma with any sovereignty of its own, no living being that can be found anywhere at all. Vajra Banner Bodhisattva's verse ends on the closing observation that "living being" is not a real entity but only a name set forth in accordance with worldly convention — completing the fifth dedication, the dedication of the inexhaustible treasury of merit.
Only a Provisional Name
The verse's closing movement dismantles, one pair at a time, every category that might seem to ground a dedication — form and formlessness, existence and non-existence, karma and its fruit — before landing on the most basic category of all: the living being itself. The final line does not deny that beings appear to act and suffer; it locates "living being" precisely where the whole verse has been pointing all along, as a name that worldly convention provisionally sets forth, not a thing that could ever be found and grasped.
菩薩善觀諸行法，了達其性不自在，
既知諸法性如是，不妄取業及果報。
無有色法無色法，亦無有想無無想，
有法無法皆悉無，了知一切無所得。
一切諸法因緣生，體性非有亦非無，
而於因緣及所起，畢竟於中無取著。
一切眾生語言處，於中畢竟無所得，
了知名相皆分別，明解諸法悉無我。
如眾生性本寂滅，如是了知一切法，
三世所攝無有餘，剎及諸業皆平等。
以如是智而迴向，隨其悟解福業生，
此諸福相亦如解，豈復於中有可得？
The bodhisattva skillfully contemplates every conditioned dharma, penetrating and understanding that its nature has no sovereignty of its own; having known that the nature of every dharma is thus, they do not falsely grasp at karma or its resultant fruit. There is no dharma of form and no dharma without form, and likewise no perception and no absence of perception; existent dharmas and non-existent dharmas are both entirely without — they thoroughly understand that nothing at all can be attained. Every dharma is born from causes and conditions, its very nature neither existent nor non-existent; and yet within those very causes and conditions and what arises from them, they are, in the end, without any attachment or clinging at all. Within the very domain of every living being's language, nothing at all can ultimately be attained there; they thoroughly understand that names and marks are entirely discrimination, clearly comprehending that every dharma is without any self at all. Just as the nature of living beings is originally quiescent, they understand every dharma in just this way; gathered entirely within the three periods of time without exception, every land and every karmic deed is equally the same. Dedicating with wisdom such as this, according with whatever understanding gives rise to the karma of merit; these very marks of merit are likewise just as understood — how, then, could anything at all be attained within them?
如是迴向心無垢，永不稱量諸法性，
了達其性皆非性，不住世間亦不出。
一切所行眾善業，悉以迴向諸群生，
莫不了達其真性，所有分別皆除遣。
所有一切虛妄見，悉皆棄捨無有餘，
離諸熱惱恒清涼，住於解脫無礙地。
菩薩不壞一切法，亦不滅壞諸法性，
解了諸法猶如響，悉於一切無所著。
了知三世諸眾生，悉從因緣和合起，
亦知心樂及習氣，未曾滅壞一切法。
了達業性非是業，而亦不違諸法相，
又亦不壞業果報，說諸法性從緣起。
了知眾生無有生，亦無眾生可流轉，
無實眾生而可說，但依世俗假宣示。
Dedicating in just this way, their mind free of any stain, they forever refrain from weighing and measuring the nature of any dharma; having penetrated and understood that its very nature is entirely without nature, they neither abide within the world nor depart from it. Every wholesome deed that they practice, they dedicate entirely toward the multitude; there is nothing they do not penetrate and understand as to its true nature, and every discrimination at all is entirely dispelled. Every false view there is, they entirely relinquish and abandon without exception; leaving far behind every feverish affliction, forever cool and tranquil, they abide within the unobstructed ground of liberation. The bodhisattva does not destroy any dharma at all, nor do they destroy the very nature of any dharma; they understand every dharma as being just like an echo, clinging to nothing at all within any of them. They understand that every living being of the three periods of time arises entirely from the coming-together of causes and conditions; they likewise know the mind's delights and habitual tendencies, and have never once destroyed any dharma at all. They penetrate and understand that the very nature of karma is not karma itself, and yet they do not contradict the mark of any dharma; nor do they destroy the karmic fruit and its ripening — they explain that the nature of every dharma arises from conditions. They understand that living beings have no birth at all, nor is there any living being that can transmigrate; there is no real living being that can be spoken of at all — it is only in accordance with worldly convention that this is provisionally set forth.
"They understand every dharma as being just like an echo" gives the verse's entire closing argument its clearest image: an echo is not nothing — it is genuinely heard, genuinely caused, genuinely responsive to what produced it — and yet no one would search for a substantial thing called "the echo" apart from the sound's own arising and fading. Karma, its fruit, and the living being who appears to bear it are asked to be understood the same way: real as process, empty of any fixed thing underneath.
Fifth Dedication Complete — 第五無盡功德藏迴向
With this verse's close, the fifth of the ten dedications — the dedication of the inexhaustible treasury of merit — is now complete. Its exposition opened with wholesome roots gathered through confession, homage, entreaty, and rejoicing, moved through the adornment of buddha-lands, ten acts of skillful-means dedication, the direct seeing that no person can be found in any dharma, and ten named inexhaustible treasuries, and closed with this verse's own inventory of buddha-lands whose merit outlasts every kalpa and a living being that is, in the end, only a name.
Part 260 Complete
This closes Part 260 and the fifth dedication. Chapter 25 continues in Part 261 with the sixth of the ten dedications — the dedication of according with and firming every wholesome root (隨順堅固一切善根迴向) — opening with a bodhisattva who reigns as a great king, his majestic virtue reaching every quarter of the realm.