Never Once Abandoning a Good Friend
The bejeweled carts turn from buddhas to another kind of recipient: bodhisattvas and other good spiritual friends, teachers whose guidance a wholesome root is now dedicated to honor. Nineteen wishes follow — remembering a teacher's every word, drawing near without reserve, giving one's own body if asked, never once going against their teaching — closing on the wish that every living being's merit become fully complete, no different at all from that of buddhas and bodhisattvas.
What Is Owed to a Teacher
Where the previous dedication toward buddhas moved outward into vast displays of spiritual power, this one stays close and personal: remembering, following, serving, never abandoning. The relationship described is startlingly total — "may every living being be able to give their own body to a good spiritual friend, never going against whatever they teach and command" — yet the passage closes not on submission for its own sake but on an equality: living beings whose merit, through this very devotion, becomes no different at all from a buddha's or a bodhisattva's own.
「佛子！菩薩摩訶薩以眾寶車施菩薩等善知識時，以諸善根如是迴向，所謂：『願一切眾生心常憶持善知識教，專勤守護，令不忘失；願一切眾生與善知識同一義利，普攝一切與共善根；願一切眾生近善知識，尊重供養，悉捨所有，順可其心；願一切眾生得善志欲，隨逐善友，未甞捨離；願一切眾生常得值遇諸善知識，專意承奉，不違其教；願一切眾生樂善知識，常不捨離，無間無雜，亦無誤失；願一切眾生能以其身施善知識，隨其教命靡有違逆；願一切眾生為善知識之所攝受，修習大慈，遠離諸惡；願一切眾生隨善知識聽聞諸佛所說正法；願一切眾生與善知識同一善根清淨業果，與諸菩薩同一行願究竟十力。』
"Child of the Buddha! When the bodhisattva mahāsattva gives every kind of jeweled cart to bodhisattvas and other good spiritual friends, they dedicate every wholesome root in just this way, namely: 'May every living being's mind forever remember and uphold a good spiritual friend's own teaching, diligently guarding it single-mindedly so it is never forgotten; may every living being share the very same meaning and benefit with a good spiritual friend, universally gathering in every wholesome root together with them; may every living being draw near to a good spiritual friend, revering and making offerings to them, giving up everything they have, according with their very mind; may every living being attain wholesome aspiration and desire, following after a good friend and never once abandoning them; may every living being forever encounter every good spiritual friend, single-mindedly serving and honoring them, never going against their teaching; may every living being delight in a good spiritual friend, forever never abandoning them, without interruption and without any impurity, and without any error at all; may every living being be able to give their own body to a good spiritual friend, never going against whatever they teach and command; may every living being be gathered in by a good spiritual friend, cultivating great loving-kindness, staying far from every evil; may every living being follow a good spiritual friend in listening to the true Dharma spoken by every buddha; may every living being share the very same wholesome root and pure karmic fruit with a good spiritual friend, sharing the very same practice and vow with every bodhisattva, reaching the ultimate ten powers.'
『願一切眾生悉能受持善知識法，逮得一切三昧境界智慧神通；願一切眾生悉能受持一切正法，修習諸行到於彼岸；願一切眾生乘於大乘無所障礙，究竟成就一切智道；願一切眾生悉得上於一切智乘，至安隱處無有退轉；願一切眾生知如實行，隨其所聞一切佛法，皆得究竟，永無忘失；願一切眾生普為諸佛之所攝受，得無礙智，究竟諸法；願一切眾生得無退失自在神通，所欲往詣，一念皆到；願一切眾生往來自在，廣行化導，令住大乘；願一切眾生所行不空，載以智乘到究竟位；願一切眾生得無礙乘，以無礙智至一切處。』是為菩薩摩訶薩施善知識種種車時善根迴向，為令眾生功德具足與佛菩薩等無異故。
"May every living being be able to uphold every dharma of a good spiritual friend entirely, attaining every samādhi-state, wisdom, and spiritual power; may every living being be able to uphold every true dharma entirely, cultivating and practicing every deed, reaching the far shore; may every living being ride the Mahāyāna without any obstruction at all, ultimately accomplishing the path of all-knowing wisdom; may every living being entirely attain ascending the vehicle of all-knowing wisdom, reaching the place of peace and security, never regressing; may every living being know how to practice exactly as it truly is, whatever buddha-dharma they have heard entirely reaching its ultimate end, forever without forgetting it; may every living being be universally gathered in by every buddha, attaining unobstructed wisdom, reaching the ultimate end of every dharma; may every living being attain sovereign spiritual power that never regresses or is lost, reaching wherever they wish to go within a single thought; may every living being come and go with sovereign freedom, widely carrying out teaching and guidance, causing living beings to abide in the Mahāyāna; may every living being's every deed be never in vain, riding the vehicle of wisdom to reach the ultimate stage; may every living being attain the unobstructed vehicle, reaching every place through unobstructed wisdom." This is the bodhisattva mahāsattva's dedication of the wholesome root when giving every kind of cart to a good spiritual friend; it is done so that living beings' merit becomes fully complete, no different at all from that of buddhas and bodhisattvas.
The dedication's closing claim — that the resulting merit is "no different at all from that of buddhas and bodhisattvas" — only makes sense in light of what came before it: a good spiritual friend is treated here not as a lesser figure worth honoring out of gratitude, but as the very channel through which a living being's practice becomes indistinguishable from a buddha's own. Devotion to the teacher is not a preliminary stage on the way to something higher; it already is the higher thing.
Part 272 Complete
This closes Part 272. Chapter 25 continues in Part 273 as the sixth dedication's litany of specific gifts continues.