Take and Use Them However You Wish
Following Beneficial Bodhisattva and All-Giving King Bodhisattva, the bodhisattva offers a beggar his own marrow and flesh with the simplest words in this entire dedication: "Take and use them however you wish." As he gives, ten things appear entirely before him at once — every buddha, every sentient being, every world, every bodhisattva across the three periods of time — each explained by its own reason, before ten dedication-vows describe bodies of vajra, of a single mark, and of the treasury of bodhi itself.
Everything Appears at Once
The ten-fold list of what "appears entirely before him" is unusual even within this dedication: rather than describing what the bodhisattva does or wishes, it describes what becomes present to him in the very act of giving — buddhas regarded as a father, every sentient being needing rescue, every world needing purification. Giving away marrow and flesh, the passage suggests, does not shrink the giver's world down to his own pain; it opens the whole of it at once.
「佛子！菩薩摩訶薩見有乞求其身髓肉，歡喜軟語，謂乞者言：『我身髓肉，隨意取用。』如饒益菩薩、一切施王菩薩，及餘無量諸菩薩等。於諸趣中種種生處，以其髓肉施乞者時，歡喜廣大，施心增長；同諸菩薩修習善根，離世塵垢，得深志樂；以身普施，心無有盡；具足無量廣大善根，攝受一切妙功德寶，如菩薩法受行無厭；心常愛樂布施功德，一切周給，心無有悔；審觀諸法從緣無體，不貪施業及業果報；隨所會遇，平等施與。佛子！菩薩摩訶薩如是施時，一切諸佛皆悉現前，想之如父得護念故；一切眾生皆悉現前，普令安住清淨法故；一切世界皆悉現前，嚴淨一切佛國土故；一切眾生皆悉現前，以大悲心普救護故；一切佛道皆悉現前，樂觀如來十種力故；去、來、現在一切菩薩皆悉現前，同共圓滿諸善根故；一切無畏皆悉現前，能作最上師子吼故；一切三世皆悉現前，得平等智，普觀察故；一切世間皆悉現前，發廣大願，盡未來劫修菩提故；一切菩薩無疲厭行皆悉現前，發無數量廣大心故。佛子！菩薩摩訶薩施髓肉時，以此善根如是迴向，所謂：『願一切眾生得金剛身，不可沮壞；願一切眾生得堅密身，恒無缺減；願一切眾生得意生身，猶如佛身，莊嚴清淨；願一切眾生得百福相身，三十二相而自莊嚴；願一切眾生得八十種好妙莊嚴身，具足十力，不可斷壞；願一切眾生得如來身，究竟清淨，不可限量；願一切眾生得堅固身，一切魔怨所不能壞；願一切眾生得一相身，與三世佛同一身相；願一切眾生得無礙身，以淨法身遍虛空界；願一切眾生得菩提藏身，普能容納一切世間。』是為菩薩摩訶薩求一切智施髓肉時善根迴向，為令眾生皆得如來究竟清淨無量身故。
"Child of the Buddha! Whenever the bodhisattva mahāsattva sees someone come begging for his own marrow and flesh, he speaks joyfully and gently, saying to the beggar: 'My marrow and flesh — take and use them however you wish.' This is as Beneficial Bodhisattva, All-Giving King Bodhisattva, and countless other bodhisattvas have done. Throughout the various destinies and every kind of place of birth, when he gives his own marrow and flesh to a beggar, his joy is vast and great, and his mind of giving increases; together with every bodhisattva he cultivates wholesome roots, leaving behind the world's own dust and defilement, and attains a profound aspiration and joy; giving his body universally, his mind knows no exhaustion; fully endowed with immeasurable and vast wholesome roots, he embraces every wondrous jewel of merit, practicing according to the bodhisattva's own Dharma without ever wearying; his mind forever loves and delights in the merit of giving, providing for everyone entirely, his mind never regretting; carefully contemplating how every dharma arises from conditions and has no fixed essence, he covets neither the act of giving nor its karmic fruit and recompense; according to whatever he encounters, he gives with perfect equality. Child of the Buddha! When the bodhisattva mahāsattva gives in this way, every buddha appears entirely before him, because he regards them as a father whose watchful care he has received; every sentient being appears entirely before him, so that he may cause all to abide securely in the pure Dharma; every world appears entirely before him, so that he may adorn and purify every buddha-land; every sentient being appears entirely before him, so that with a mind of great compassion he may universally rescue and protect them; every buddha-path appears entirely before him, so that he may delight in beholding the Tathāgata's own ten powers; every bodhisattva of the past, future, and present appears entirely before him, so that together they may perfect every wholesome root; every fearlessness appears entirely before him, so that he may give the most supreme lion's roar; every one of the three periods of time appears entirely before him, so that he may attain equal wisdom and observe universally; every world appears entirely before him, so that he may give rise to vast and expansive vows and cultivate bodhi to the very end of future kalpas; the untiring practice of every bodhisattva appears entirely before him, so that he may give rise to a mind vast and expansive beyond number. Child of the Buddha! When the bodhisattva mahāsattva gives his marrow and flesh, with this wholesome root, he dedicates it in this way, namely: 'May all sentient beings obtain the vajra body, unable to be crushed or destroyed; may all sentient beings obtain the firm and dense body, forever without deficiency or diminishment; may all sentient beings obtain the mind-made body, like the Buddha's own body, adorned and pure; may all sentient beings obtain the body bearing marks born of a hundred blessings, adorned by the thirty-two marks themselves; may all sentient beings obtain the body wondrously adorned by the eighty minor marks, fully endowed with the ten powers, unable to be severed or destroyed; may all sentient beings obtain the Tathāgata's own body, ultimately pure and beyond all measure; may all sentient beings obtain the firm and unbreakable body, unable to be destroyed by any enemy of Māra; may all sentient beings obtain the body of a single mark, sharing the very same bodily mark as every buddha across the three periods of time; may all sentient beings obtain the unobstructed body, its pure Dharma-body pervading the entire realm of empty space; may all sentient beings obtain the body that is the treasury of bodhi, universally able to contain every world.' This is the bodhisattva mahāsattva's dedication of wholesome roots, seeking omniscience, when giving his marrow and flesh; it is so that sentient beings may all obtain the Tathāgata's own ultimately pure and immeasurable body.
"Carefully contemplating how every dharma arises from conditions and has no fixed essence, he covets neither the act of giving nor its karmic fruit and recompense" states outright the view that has made every earlier gift in this dedication bearable: because the giving itself, like everything else, is empty of any fixed self-nature, there is nothing solid left over to grieve losing, and nothing solid to grasp as merit either.
Part 297 Complete
This closes the section on giving the marrow and flesh (施髓肉) within the sixth dedication. Chapter 25 continues in Part 298 as the bodhisattva mahāsattva, following Never-Regretting Bodhisattva and Unobstructed King Bodhisattva, gives away his own mind and heart.