Eleven Names for Giving
Abiding within a firm and sovereign ground, the bodhisattva mahāsattva gives away his own teeth to sentient beings, following Flower-Tooth King Bodhisattva and Six-Tusked Elephant King Bodhisattva. Before the dedication begins, the passage names eleven distinct kinds of giving at once — inexhaustible giving, giving with great faith, giving that harbors no resentment at all — as though a single act of relinquishment required an entire vocabulary to describe fully.
A Mind Rare as the Udumbara Flower
The eleven names for giving that open this passage — from "inexhaustible giving" to "giving that harbors no resentment at all" — function less as a checklist to complete than as an attempt to name every facet of a single mind at once, a mind the text compares to the udumbara flower: rare, difficult to encounter, blooming almost never. The ten dedication-vows that follow turn teeth into stūpas, into the svastika mark, into a source of light bestowing prophecy upon other bodhisattvas.
「佛子！菩薩摩訶薩安住堅固自在地中，能以牙齒施諸眾生，猶如往昔華齒王菩薩、六牙象王菩薩，及餘無量諸菩薩等。菩薩摩訶薩施牙齒時，其心清淨，希有難得如優曇華。所謂：無盡心施、大信心施、步步成就無量捨心施、調伏諸根心施、一切悉捨心施、一切智願心施、安樂眾生心施、大施、極施、勝施、最勝施、輟身要用無所嫌恨心施。菩薩爾時，以諸善根如是迴向，所謂：『願一切眾生得銛白牙齒，成最勝塔，受天人供；願一切眾生得齊平牙齒，如佛相好，無有踈缺；願一切眾生得調伏心，善趣菩薩波羅蜜行；願一切眾生口善清淨，牙齒鮮白，分明顯現；願一切眾生得可憶念莊嚴牙齒，其口清淨，無可惡相；願一切眾生牙齒成就具滿四十，常出種種希有妙香；願一切眾生意善調伏，牙齒鮮潔如白蓮華，文理迴旋卐字成就；願一切眾生口脣鮮淨，牙齒潔白，放無量光周遍照耀；願一切眾生牙齒堅利，食無完粒，無所味著，為上福田；願一切眾生於牙齒間常放光明，授諸菩薩第一記別。』是為菩薩摩訶薩施牙齒時善根迴向；為令眾生具一切智，於諸法中智慧清淨故。
"Child of the Buddha! The bodhisattva mahāsattva, abiding within a firm and sovereign ground, is able to give his own teeth to sentient beings, just as Flower-Tooth King Bodhisattva, Six-Tusked Elephant King Bodhisattva, and countless other bodhisattvas have done in ages past. When the bodhisattva mahāsattva gives away his teeth, his mind is pure, as rare and difficult to encounter as the udumbara flower. Namely: giving with an inexhaustible mind, giving with a mind of great faith, giving with a mind that accomplishes immeasurable relinquishment step by step, giving with a mind that subdues every faculty, giving with a mind that relinquishes everything entirely, giving with a mind that vows omniscience, giving with a mind that brings peace and happiness to sentient beings, great giving, giving to the utmost, supreme giving, most supreme giving, and giving with a mind, essential to the body's very use, that harbors no resentment at all. The bodhisattva then, with every wholesome root, dedicates it in this way, namely: 'May all sentient beings obtain sharp, white teeth, becoming the most supreme stūpa, receiving the offerings of gods and humans; may all sentient beings obtain even, level teeth, like the excellent marks of a buddha, without any gap or flaw; may all sentient beings obtain a subdued mind, skillfully proceeding along the pāramitā practice of a bodhisattva; may all sentient beings have a mouth well purified, their teeth fresh and white, distinctly and clearly manifest; may all sentient beings obtain teeth adorned in a way worth remembering, their mouth pure, without any repulsive mark; may all sentient beings accomplish teeth fully numbering forty, forever giving off every kind of rare and wondrous fragrance; may all sentient beings have their mind well subdued, their teeth fresh and pure like a white lotus flower, their pattern spiraling into the accomplished form of the svastika mark; may all sentient beings have pure, fresh lips, teeth clean and white, radiating immeasurable light that shines everywhere; may all sentient beings have teeth firm and sharp, so that whatever they eat leaves no grain whole, and they cling to no taste at all, becoming a supreme field of merit; may all sentient beings forever emit light from between their teeth, bestowing upon every bodhisattva the foremost prophecy of future buddhahood.' This is the bodhisattva mahāsattva's dedication of wholesome roots when giving away his teeth; it is so that sentient beings may be endowed with omniscience, their wisdom pure within every dharma.
The vow about teeth that "leave no grain whole" and "cling to no taste at all" quietly folds an ordinary bodily function — chewing — into the same register as everything else in this dedication. Even digestion, thoroughly done and free of craving for flavor, becomes here "a supreme field of merit." Nothing about the body, this litany keeps insisting, sits outside what can be transformed.
Part 292 Complete
This closes the section on giving the teeth (施牙齒) within the sixth dedication. Chapter 25 continues in Part 293 as the bodhisattva mahāsattva, encountering countless beings who come to beg for his tongue, opens his mouth and offers it to them.