Riding a Body of Empty Space
Jeweled carts given to the saṃgha, offered from a mind that regards the treasure of the saṃgha as difficult to encounter, carry a dedication of nineteen wishes — leaving the ground of ordinary beings for the assembly of the worthy and noble, becoming sovereign as a king among every gathering, and finally riding upon a body of empty space, manifesting universally like a shadow before whoever needs to be taught.
A Treasure Difficult to Encounter
The passage opens by naming seven distinct states of mind the bodhisattva brings to this one act of giving — a mind that studies giving itself, a mind of skillful wisdom, a mind that regards the saṃgha as rare and difficult to encounter. This attentiveness to interior state, unusual in its density even within this litany, sets up wishes that move from ordinary moral standing — "honored and revered throughout the entire world, their every word trusted" — toward something closer to pure spiritual technology: a body relying on nothing at all, manifesting like a shadow, present wherever needed without ever having traveled there.
「佛子！菩薩摩訶薩以眾寶車布施僧時，起學一切施心、智善了心、淨功德心、隨順捨心、僧寶難遇心、深信僧寶心、攝持正教心，住勝志樂，得未曾有，為大施會，出生無量廣大功德，深信佛教不可沮壞；以諸善根如是迴向，所謂：『願一切眾生普入佛法，憶持不忘；願一切眾生離凡愚法，入賢聖處；願一切眾生速入聖位，能以佛法次第開誘；願一切眾生舉世宗重，言必信用；願一切眾生善入一切諸法平等，了知法界自性無二；願一切眾生從於如來智境而生，諸調順人所共圍遶；願一切眾生住離染法，滅除一切煩惱塵垢；願一切眾生皆得成就無上僧寶，離凡夫地，入賢聖眾；願一切眾生勤修善法，得無礙智，具聖功德；願一切眾生得智慧心，不著三世，於諸眾中自在如王。』
"Child of the Buddha! When the bodhisattva mahāsattva gives every kind of jeweled cart to the saṃgha, they give rise to the mind that studies every kind of giving, the mind of skillful and thorough wisdom, the mind of pure merit, the mind of according with relinquishment, the mind that regards the treasure of the saṃgha as difficult to encounter, the mind of deep faith in the treasure of the saṃgha, and the mind that upholds the true teaching; abiding in supreme aspiration and delight, attaining what has never existed before, holding a great assembly of giving, giving birth to immeasurable, vast merit, deeply believing that the Buddha's own teaching can never be shaken. They dedicate every wholesome root in just this way, namely: 'May every living being universally enter the buddha-dharma, remembering and upholding it without ever forgetting; may every living being leave behind the dharma of the ordinary and the foolish, entering the place of the worthy and the noble; may every living being swiftly enter the noble stage, able to guide and instruct others through the buddha-dharma in due sequence; may every living being be honored and revered throughout the entire world, their every word trusted and relied upon; may every living being skillfully enter the equality of every dharma, thoroughly understanding that the very nature of the Dharma-realm is without duality; may every living being be born from the Tathāgata's own state of wisdom, surrounded together by every tamed and gentle person; may every living being abide in the dharma free of defilement, extinguishing and eliminating every dust and stain of affliction; may every living being entirely accomplish the unsurpassed treasure of the saṃgha, leaving behind the ground of ordinary beings and entering the assembly of the worthy and the noble; may every living being diligently cultivate wholesome dharmas, attaining unobstructed wisdom, endowed with noble merit; may every living being attain a mind of wisdom, unattached to the three periods of time, sovereign as a king among every assembly.'
『願一切眾生乘智慧乘，轉正法輪；願一切眾生具足神通，一念能往不可說不可說世界；願一切眾生乘虛空身，於諸世間智慧無礙；願一切眾生普入一切虛空法界諸佛眾會，成就第一波羅蜜行；願一切眾生得輕舉身殊勝智慧，悉能遍入一切佛剎；願一切眾生獲無邊際善巧神足，於一切剎普現其身；願一切眾生得於一切無所依身，以神通力如影普現；願一切眾生得不思議自在神力，隨應可化，即現其前，教化調伏；願一切眾生得入法界無礙方便，一念遍遊十方國土。』是為菩薩摩訶薩施僧寶車善根迴向；為令眾生普乘清淨無上智乘，於一切世間轉無礙法智慧輪故。
"May every living being ride the vehicle of wisdom, turning the wheel of the true Dharma; may every living being be fully endowed with spiritual power, able to go, within a single thought, to indescribably indescribable worlds; may every living being ride upon a body of empty space, their wisdom unobstructed throughout every world; may every living being universally enter every assembly of every buddha throughout the entire realm of empty space and Dharma-realm, accomplishing the foremost practice of the perfections; may every living being attain a light, buoyant body and supreme wisdom, able to enter every buddha-land entirely; may every living being obtain boundless, skillful spiritual feet, manifesting their own body universally within every land; may every living being attain a body relying on nothing at all, manifesting universally like a shadow through the power of spiritual transformation; may every living being attain inconceivable, sovereign spiritual power, manifesting immediately before whoever should be transformed according to what is fitting, teaching and taming them; may every living being attain unobstructed skillful means for entering the Dharma-realm, universally journeying throughout the lands of the ten directions within a single thought." This is the bodhisattva mahāsattva's dedication of the wholesome root of giving carts to the treasure of the saṃgha; it is done so that living beings universally ride the pure, unsurpassed vehicle of wisdom, turning the unobstructed wheel of wisdom's own Dharma throughout every world.
"A body relying on nothing at all, manifesting universally like a shadow" clarifies what "riding upon a body of empty space" meant a few wishes earlier — not a body that occupies empty space, but one that has taken on empty space's own defining property, the absence of anything fixed for it to depend on. A shadow requires no vehicle to travel; wherever the conditions for its appearing are met, it is simply already there.
Part 273 Complete
This closes Part 273. Chapter 25 continues in Part 274 as the sixth dedication's litany of specific gifts continues.