A Life Given for a Life Condemned
The rescue from prison in the previous section becomes, here, a rescue from execution itself: a prisoner bound at five points of the body, driven toward the block, the stake, or the pyre. The bodhisattva offers the executioner his own body in exchange — following Ajita Bodhisattva, Supreme Practice King Bodhisattva, and countless other great bodhisattvas — declaring that whatever suffering was meant for the condemned may instead be given to him, even multiplied a thousandfold.
"I Could Not Be Called One Who Abides in the Bodhisattva's Own Mind"
The bodhisattva's speech to the executioner is the most direct first-person statement in this entire dedication so far — not a description of a vow but words actually spoken in the moment of crisis. The reasoning he gives is stark: failing to give up his own body here would disqualify him from the very name "bodhisattva," because the bodhi-mind he has generated exists specifically for rescuing beings, not as an abstract commitment held in reserve.
「佛子！菩薩摩訶薩見有獄囚五處被縛，受諸苦毒；防衛驅逼，將之死地，欲斷其命，捨閻浮提一切樂具，親戚、朋友悉將永訣，置高碪上以刀屠割，或用木槍豎貫其體，衣纏油沃以火焚燒，如是等苦，種種逼迫。菩薩見已，自捨其身而代受之；如阿逸多菩薩、殊勝行王菩薩及餘無量諸大菩薩，為眾生故，自捨身命，受諸苦毒。菩薩爾時語主者言：『我願捨身以代彼命，如此等苦可以與我。如治彼人，隨意皆作；設過彼苦阿僧祇倍，我亦當受，令其解脫。我若見彼將被殺害，不捨身命救贖其苦，則不名為住菩薩心。何以故？我為救護一切眾生，發一切智菩提心故。』佛子！菩薩摩訶薩自捨身命救眾生時，以諸善根如是迴向，所謂：『願一切眾生得無斷盡究竟身命，永離一切災橫逼惱；願一切眾生依諸佛住，受一切智，具足十力，菩提記別；願一切眾生普救含識，令無怖畏，永出惡道；願一切眾生得一切命，入於不死智慧境界；願一切眾生永離怨敵，無諸厄難，常為諸佛、善友所攝；願一切眾生捨離一切刀劍兵仗、諸惡苦具，修行種種清淨善業；願一切眾生離諸怖畏，菩提樹下摧伏魔軍；願一切眾生離大眾怖，於無上法心淨無畏，能為最上大師子吼；願一切眾生得無障礙師子智慧，於諸世間修行正業；願一切眾生到無畏處，常念救護諸苦眾生。』是為菩薩摩訶薩自捨身命救彼臨刑諸獄囚時善根迴向；為令眾生離生死苦，得於如來上妙樂故。
"Child of the Buddha! The bodhisattva mahāsattva sees a prisoner bound at five points of the body, suffering every torment; driven and pressed forward by their guards toward the place of death, about to have their life cut off, having taken final leave forever of every pleasure of Jambudvīpa and of every kinsman and friend, set upon a high block to be cut apart by the blade, or pierced through the body upright on a wooden stake, or wrapped in cloth soaked with oil and burned by fire — suffering such torments as these, pressed and driven by every kind of affliction. Having seen this, the bodhisattva relinquishes their own body to endure it in the prisoner's place, just as Ajita Bodhisattva, Supreme Practice King Bodhisattva, and countless other great bodhisattvas, for the sake of sentient beings, have relinquished their own body and life, enduring every torment. The bodhisattva then speaks to the one in charge, saying: 'I wish to give up my own body in place of that person's life; whatever torment of this kind there is, let it be given to me instead. Do to me whatever you would have done to punish that person, entirely as you wish; even were the suffering to exceed that a thousandfold, an asaṃkhyeya times over, I would still accept it, that they might be freed. If I were to see that person about to be put to death, and did not give up my own body and life to ransom them from their suffering, I could not be called one who abides in the bodhisattva's own mind. Why is this so? Because I have given rise to the bodhi-mind of omniscience for the sake of rescuing and protecting every sentient being.' Child of the Buddha! When the bodhisattva mahāsattva relinquishes their own body and life to rescue sentient beings, with every wholesome root, they dedicate it in this way, namely: 'May all sentient beings obtain a body and life that is never cut off, ultimate and unbroken, forever leaving behind every calamity, injury, and affliction; may all sentient beings abide relying upon every buddha, receive omniscience, be fully endowed with the ten powers, and receive the prophecy of future buddhahood; may all sentient beings universally rescue every sentient being, causing them to be free of fear, and forever leave the evil destinies; may all sentient beings obtain every kind of life, entering the deathless realm of wisdom; may all sentient beings forever leave behind every enemy, free of every calamity and difficulty, forever embraced by every buddha and good friend; may all sentient beings relinquish every sword and blade, every weapon of war, and every evil instrument of suffering, and cultivate every kind of pure and wholesome karma; may all sentient beings leave behind every fear, and beneath the bodhi tree subdue the armies of Māra; may all sentient beings leave behind the fear of the great assembly, their minds pure and fearless before the unsurpassed Dharma, able to give the most supreme lion's roar; may all sentient beings obtain the unobstructed wisdom of a lion, and throughout every world cultivate right karma; may all sentient beings reach the place free of fear, forever mindful of rescuing and protecting every suffering sentient being.' This is the bodhisattva mahāsattva's dedication of wholesome roots when relinquishing their own body and life to rescue prisoners facing execution; it is so that sentient beings may leave behind the suffering of birth and death, and obtain the Tathāgata's own supreme and wondrous happiness.
Fascicle twenty-six closes on this vow, and it is worth noticing how far the litany has traveled: it opened with a wheel-turning king giving away his lion-throne, and it closes with an unnamed bodhisattva offering his own body to an executioner. Every gift in between — canopy, banner, jewel, crown — was, in retrospect, training for exactly this: a giving that no longer distinguishes between a possession and a life.
Fascicle 26 Complete — Part 287
This closes fascicle twenty-six of the Avataṃsaka Sūtra. The sixth dedication, "The Dedication of Following and According with All Sentient Beings' Good Roots" (隨順堅固一切善根迴向), continues into fascicle twenty-seven in Part 288.