A King Who Withholds Nothing
Vajra Banner Bodhisattva opens the sixth dedication — the dedication of according with and firming every wholesome root — describing a bodhisattva who reigns as a wheel-turning king, majestic virtue reaching every quarter of the realm. His giving escalates from food, robes, and jeweled carriages, to his own throne and crown, to his wife and retinue offered to free a prisoner, and finally to his own body — eyes, flesh, marrow, and skin — surrendered to save a condemned life or to seek even a single word of the Dharma.
From Throne to Marrow
The passage's escalation is deliberate and relentless: ordinary gifts of food and clothing give way to the very instruments of kingship — throne, canopy, crown — and then to what a king would ordinarily consider inseparable from himself: his wife, his retinue, and at last his own body, catalogued limb by limb, organ by organ, down to fingernails still attached to flesh. Nothing in the list is withheld because nothing, this dedication insists, was ever truly his to withhold.
「佛子！云何為菩薩摩訶薩隨順堅固一切善根迴向？「佛子！此菩薩摩訶薩或為帝王臨御大國，威德廣被，名震天下，凡諸怨敵靡不歸順，發號施令悉依正法，執持一蓋溥蔭萬方，周行率土所向無礙，以離垢繒而繫其頂，於法自在，見者咸伏，不刑不罰，感德從化；以四攝法攝諸眾生，為轉輪王，一切周給。菩薩摩訶薩安住如是自在功德，有大眷屬，不可沮壞，離眾過失，見者無厭，福德莊嚴，相好圓滿，形體肢分均調具足；獲那羅延堅固之身，大力成就，無能屈伏；得清淨業，離諸業障；具足修行一切布施，或施飲食及諸上味，或施車乘，或施衣服，或施華鬘、雜香、塗香、床座、房舍及所住處、上妙燈燭、病緣湯藥、寶器、寶車、調良象馬，悉皆嚴飾，歡喜布施。
"Child of the Buddha! What is called the bodhisattva mahāsattva's dedication of according with and firming every wholesome root? Child of the Buddha! This bodhisattva mahāsattva may become a sovereign reigning over a great realm, their majestic virtue spreading widely, their name resounding throughout the world; every enemy without exception submits and yields to them, and every decree they issue accords entirely with the true Dharma; holding aloft a single canopy that shelters every quarter, they journey throughout the entire land, going wherever they wish without any obstruction; their crown bound with the stainless silken cord, sovereign and free within the Dharma, everyone who sees them submits, and they neither punish nor penalize, for all are moved by their virtue and follow their transformation; gathering every living being through the four means of embracing, they become a wheel-turning king, providing for everyone entirely. The bodhisattva mahāsattva, abiding in sovereign merit such as this, has a great retinue that cannot be shaken or destroyed, is free of every fault, and is never wearied of by anyone who sees them; adorned with merit, their excellent marks fully rounded, every limb and part of their body evenly proportioned and complete; they attain the firm and indestructible body of Nārāyaṇa, their great strength accomplished, unable to be subdued by anyone; they attain pure karma, free of every karmic hindrance; they are fully endowed in cultivating and practicing every kind of giving — whether giving food and drink and every superior flavor, whether giving carriages, whether giving robes, or whether giving garlands, various fragrances, perfumed unguents, thrones, dwellings and their places of abode, wondrous lamps and candles, medicine for illness, jeweled vessels, jeweled carriages, and well-trained elephants and horses — all of them adorned entirely, given away with a joyful heart.
或有來乞王所處座，若蓋、若傘，幢幡寶物、諸莊嚴具，頂上寶冠、髻中明珠，乃至王位，皆無所吝。若見眾生在牢獄中，捨諸財寶、妻子、眷屬，乃至以身救彼令脫。若見獄囚將欲被戮，即捨其身以代彼命。或見來乞連膚頂髮，歡喜施與亦無所吝。眼、耳、鼻、舌，及以牙齒、頭頂、手足、血肉、骨髓、心腎、肝肺、大腸、小腸、厚皮、薄皮、手足諸指、連肉爪甲，以歡喜心盡皆施與。或為求請未曾有法，投身而下深大火坑；或為護持如來正法，以身忍受一切苦毒；或為求法乃至一字，悉能遍捨四海之內一切所有。
Should there be those who come begging for the very throne on which the king sits, or his canopy, or his parasol, or banners, pennants, and jeweled treasures, or every kind of ornament, the jeweled crown upon his head, or the bright jewel within his topknot, and even his very kingship itself — he holds back nothing at all. Should he see living beings within a prison, he gives away every treasure, his wife and children, and his own retinue, even his own body, to save them and set them free. Should he see a prisoner about to be executed, he immediately gives up his own body in place of that very life. Should someone come begging for skin still attached to his very scalp, he gives it away with a joyful heart, holding nothing back at all. Eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and teeth, the crown of the head, hands and feet, blood and flesh, marrow, heart and kidneys, liver and lungs, large intestine and small intestine, thick skin and thin skin, every finger and toe, and even flesh-attached fingernails — with a joyful mind, he gives away every one of them entirely. Should he seek to request a dharma never known before, he casts his own body down into a deep, great pit of fire; should he uphold and protect the Tathāgata's own true Dharma, he endures every kind of bitter suffering with his own body; should he seek the Dharma, even for a single word, he is able to give away entirely everything he possesses throughout the four seas.
This king's generosity is organized by proximity to selfhood, not by monetary value — food and carriages come first because they are easiest to release, the throne and crown come next because kingship itself is still, in the end, a possession, and the body's own organs come last because they are what "self" ordinarily means. The dedication's name, "according with and firming every wholesome root," suggests that this entire escalation is not recklessness but a wholesome root being tested and strengthened at each successive stage.
Part 261 Complete
This closes Part 261. Chapter 25 continues in Part 262 as this same king continues giving — building monasteries, staging an unrestricted almsgiving assembly open to every kind of being — before the passage names six ways this giving is gathered and dedicated toward firming every wholesome root.