Elephants and Horses Given
After nine parts spent on carts, the litany turns to living animals: a treasure-elephant with six pure tusks and a mouth the color of a lotus, a treasure-horse swift as the wind and steady beneath its rider. Given to parents, good spiritual friends, and the poor and suffering, they carry a dedication of ten vehicles — taming, skillful means, faith, the equal perfections — culminating in the most lofty, vast, and firm Mahāyāna able to carry every living being to the very stage of all-knowing wisdom.
A Mind That Only Grows More Glad
The passage pauses over the elephant and horse themselves before turning to their giving — their tusks, their gait, their tirelessness — with an attention to physical detail that makes the animals feel genuinely valuable rather than merely symbolic. The giving that follows is described the same way earlier extreme gifts were: "their mind vast and expansive, giving rise to no regret or reluctance at all, but only ever more joy and gladness, ever more compassion." Whatever is given, the passage insists, the giver's own gladness only increases, never diminishes.
「佛子！菩薩摩訶薩布施象寶，其性調順，七支具足，年齒盛壯，六牙清淨，口色紅赤猶如蓮華，形體鮮白譬如雪山，金幢為飾，寶網羅覆，種種妙寶莊嚴其鼻，見者欣玩無有厭足，超步萬里曾不疲倦；或復施與調良馬寶，諸相具足猶如天馬，妙寶月輪以為光飾，真金鈴網羅覆其上，行步平正，乘者安隱，隨意所往迅疾如風，遊歷四洲自在無礙。菩薩以此象寶、馬寶，或奉養父母及善知識，或給施貧乏、苦惱眾生，其心曠然，不生悔吝，但倍增欣慶，益加悲愍，修菩薩德，淨菩薩心；以此善根如是迴向，所謂：『願一切眾生住調順乘，增長一切菩薩功德；願一切眾生得善巧乘，能隨出生一切佛法；願一切眾生得信解乘，普照如來無礙智力；願一切眾生得發趣乘，能普發興一切大願；願一切眾生具足平等波羅蜜乘，成滿一切平等善根。』
"Child of the Buddha! The bodhisattva mahāsattva gives the treasure-elephant, its very nature tamed and gentle, its seven limbs fully endowed, its age vigorous and mature, its six tusks pure, its mouth the red color of a lotus flower, its body bright and white like a snow mountain, adorned with a golden banner, draped with a jeweled net, its trunk adorned with every kind of wondrous jewel — whoever sees it delights in it without ever growing tired of the sight, and it strides ten thousand miles without ever once growing weary; or they give the well-trained treasure-horse, every one of its marks fully endowed just like a heavenly horse, adorned with the light of a wondrous jeweled moon-disc, draped with a net of true-gold bells, its gait level and even, its rider at peace and secure, going wherever it wishes as swiftly as the wind, roaming through the four continents sovereign and unobstructed. With this treasure-elephant and treasure-horse, the bodhisattva either honors and provides for their parents and good spiritual friends, or gives them to the poor and suffering living beings; their mind vast and expansive, giving rise to no regret or reluctance at all, but only ever more joy and gladness, ever more compassion, cultivating the bodhisattva's own virtue, purifying the bodhisattva's own mind. They dedicate this very wholesome root in just this way, namely: 'May every living being abide in the vehicle of taming and gentleness, causing every bodhisattva's own merit to grow ever further; may every living being attain the vehicle of skillful means, able to give birth, in accordance with need, to every buddha-dharma; may every living being attain the vehicle of faith and understanding, universally illuminating the Tathāgata's own unobstructed power of wisdom; may every living being attain the vehicle of setting forth, able to universally arouse and set forth every great vow; may every living being be fully endowed with the vehicle of the equal perfections, bringing every equal wholesome root to complete fulfillment.'
『願一切眾生成就寶乘，生諸佛法無上智寶；願一切眾生成就菩薩行莊嚴乘，開敷菩薩諸三昧華；願一切眾生得無邊速疾乘，於無數劫淨菩薩心，精勤思惟，了達諸法；願一切眾生成就最勝調順大乘，以善方便具菩薩地；願一切眾生成最高廣堅固大乘，普能運載一切眾生，皆得至於一切智位。』是為菩薩摩訶薩施象、馬時善根迴向；為令眾生皆得乘於無礙智乘，圓滿究竟至佛乘故。
"May every living being accomplish the vehicle of treasure, giving birth to the unsurpassed jewel of wisdom within every buddha-dharma; may every living being accomplish the vehicle adorned with bodhisattva practice, causing every bodhisattva's own samādhi-flower to bloom and open; may every living being attain the boundless, swift vehicle, purifying the bodhisattva's own mind throughout countless kalpas, diligently contemplating and penetrating and understanding every dharma; may every living being accomplish the most supreme, tamed and gentle Mahāyāna, fully endowed with every bodhisattva ground through skillful means; may every living being accomplish the most lofty, vast, and firm Mahāyāna, universally able to carry every living being, all of them attaining the very stage of all-knowing wisdom." This is the bodhisattva mahāsattva's dedication of the wholesome root when giving elephants and horses; it is done so that living beings entirely ride the vehicle of unobstructed wisdom, fully and ultimately reaching the vehicle of buddhahood.
"The vehicle of taming and gentleness" opens this list of ten and sets its tone: an actual elephant's most valuable trait is not its size or its jewels but that it has been tamed, made responsive rather than dangerous. The wish that follows asks for exactly this in a living being — not power for its own sake, but power made governable, useful, safe to carry others.
Part 277 Complete
This closes Part 277. Chapter 25 continues in Part 278 as the sixth dedication's litany of specific gifts continues.