An Ear for Every Sound
After the eyes, the bodhisattva gives away his own ears and nose, following Supreme Practice King Bodhisattva and Undefeated by Enmity Bodhisattva. Contemplating the three states of existence and finding not one of them firm, and knowing the body itself to be illusory and empty, he holds nothing back — exchanging, as the passage puts it, "an impermanent body for one that is firm and unbreakable." Ten dedication-vows on the giving of ears follow, moving from ordinary hearing to an ear that pervades the entire Dharma-realm.
An Impermanent Body Exchanged
The phrase "exchanging an impermanent body for one that is firm and unbreakable" gives the clearest statement yet of the logic running through this entire dedication: what looks like loss from the outside — an eye, a topknot, now an ear — is framed from within as a trade, not a sacrifice. Because the body given away was never firm to begin with, nothing of real stability is actually relinquished.
「佛子！菩薩摩訶薩能以耳、鼻施諸乞者，如勝行王菩薩、無怨勝菩薩，及餘無量諸菩薩等。布施之時，親附乞者，專心修習諸菩薩行；具佛種性，生如來家，念諸菩薩所修施行，常勤發起諸佛菩提，清淨諸根功德智慧；觀察三有，無一堅固；願常得見諸佛菩薩，隨順憶念一切佛法；知身虛妄空無所有，無所貪惜。菩薩如是施耳、鼻時，心常寂靜，調伏諸根；免濟眾生險惡諸難，生長一切智慧功德；入大施海，了達法義，具修諸道；依智慧行，得法自在，以不堅身易堅固身。佛子！菩薩摩訶薩布施耳時，以諸善根如是迴向，所謂：『願一切眾生得無礙耳，普聞一切說法之音；願一切眾生得無障耳，悉能解了一切音聲；願一切眾生得如來耳，一切聰達無所壅滯；願一切眾生得清淨耳，不因耳處生分別心；願一切眾生得無聾聵耳，令蒙昧識畢竟不生；願一切眾生得遍法界耳，悉知一切諸佛法音；願一切眾生得無礙耳，開悟一切無障礙法；願一切眾生得無壞耳，善知諸論，無能壞者；願一切眾生得普聞耳，廣大清淨，為諸耳王；願一切眾生具足天耳及以佛耳。』是為菩薩摩訶薩布施耳時善根迴向，為令眾生皆悉獲得清淨耳故。
"Child of the Buddha! The bodhisattva mahāsattva is able to give his own ears and nose to whoever comes begging for them, just as Supreme Practice King Bodhisattva, Undefeated by Enmity Bodhisattva, and countless other bodhisattvas have done. When giving, he draws close to the beggar, wholeheartedly cultivating every bodhisattva practice; endowed with the buddha-nature, born into the household of the Tathāgata, mindful of the practice of giving cultivated by every bodhisattva, forever diligently giving rise to the bodhi of every buddha, purifying every faculty's merit and wisdom; contemplating the three states of existence, he finds not one of them firm or stable; he wishes forever to behold every buddha and bodhisattva, in accordance recollecting every buddha-dharma; knowing the body to be illusory, empty, and without anything at all, he holds nothing back in attachment or regret. When the bodhisattva gives away his ears and nose in this way, his mind remains forever tranquil, his every faculty subdued; he rescues sentient beings from every perilous and evil difficulty, giving rise to and increasing every merit of wisdom; he enters the great ocean of giving, thoroughly understanding the meaning of the Dharma, fully cultivating every path; relying upon the practice of wisdom, he attains mastery over the Dharma, exchanging an impermanent body for one that is firm and unbreakable. Child of the Buddha! When the bodhisattva mahāsattva gives away his ears, with every wholesome root, he dedicates it in this way, namely: 'May all sentient beings obtain the unobstructed ear, universally hearing the sound of every Dharma-teaching; may all sentient beings obtain the unhindered ear, able to understand entirely every kind of sound; may all sentient beings obtain the Tathāgata's own ear, entirely keen and penetrating, obstructed by nothing; may all sentient beings obtain the pure ear, giving rise to no discriminating mind on account of the sphere of hearing; may all sentient beings obtain the ear free of deafness, causing the confused, benighted mind to ultimately never arise; may all sentient beings obtain the ear that pervades the Dharma-realm, knowing entirely the Dharma-voice of every buddha; may all sentient beings obtain the unobstructed ear, awakening to and understanding every unobstructed dharma; may all sentient beings obtain the unbreakable ear, well understanding every treatise, broken by nothing; may all sentient beings obtain the ear that hears universally, vast and pure, becoming the very king of every ear; may all sentient beings be fully endowed with the divine ear and the Buddha's own ear.' This is the bodhisattva mahāsattva's dedication of wholesome roots when giving away his ears; it is so that sentient beings may all entirely obtain the pure ear.
"Giving rise to no discriminating mind on account of the sphere of hearing" is worth sitting with: an ordinary ear cannot help sorting what it hears into liked and disliked, praise and blame. The pure ear wished for here is not simply sharper hearing but hearing no longer organized around that reflexive sorting — sound received without the mind immediately taking sides.
Part 290 Complete
The dedication continues in Part 291 with ten further vows on giving the nose and the face, before Chapter 25 moves on to the giving of teeth. This closes the ten vows on giving the ears (施耳) within the sixth dedication.