"Only Give Me the Dharma"
The dedication turns from ordinary begging to a transaction over the Dharma itself: someone tells the bodhisattva that a teaching will be given only if he first gives up his own nails, flesh and all — and he agrees at once, answering only "Give me the Dharma." Following Dharma-Seeking Sovereign King Bodhisattva and Inexhaustible Bodhisattva, he relinquishes his nails, then dedicates it through ten vows on nails colored like coppery-red, marked with skillful means, and finally the nails of the great guide of omniscience.
The Only Price That Registers
Nowhere else in this dedication does the bodhisattva negotiate — he simply gives, without conditions attached by the giver. Here, for the first time, a condition is set by someone else, and the bodhisattva's answer reveals what actually matters to him: he does not ask what the teaching is, does not bargain over the price, does not hesitate. The body is instantly negotiable; the Dharma is the only thing he actually wants.
「佛子！菩薩摩訶薩請求法時，若有人言：『汝能施我連肉爪甲，當與汝法。』菩薩答言：『但與我法。連肉爪甲，隨意取用。』如求法自在王菩薩、無盡菩薩，及餘無量諸大菩薩，為求法故，欲以正法，開示演說，饒益眾生，一切皆令得滿足故，捨連肉爪甲與諸乞者。菩薩爾時，以此善根如是迴向，所謂：『願一切眾生皆得諸佛赤銅相爪；願一切眾生得潤澤爪，隨好莊嚴；願一切眾生得光淨爪，鑒徹第一；願一切眾生得一切智爪，具大人相；願一切眾生得無比爪，於諸世間無所染著；願一切眾生得妙莊嚴爪，光明普照一切世間；願一切眾生得不壞爪，清淨無缺；願一切眾生得入一切佛法方便相爪，廣大智慧皆悉清淨；願一切眾生得善生爪，菩薩業果無不淨妙；願一切眾生得一切智大導師爪，放無量色妙光明藏。』是為菩薩摩訶薩為求法故施連肉爪甲時善根迴向，為令眾生具足諸佛一切智爪無礙力故。
"Child of the Buddha! When the bodhisattva mahāsattva requests and seeks the Dharma, if there is someone who says: 'If you can give me your nails with the flesh still attached, I will give you the Dharma,' the bodhisattva answers, saying: 'Only give me the Dharma. As for my nails with the flesh attached, take and use them however you wish.' This is as Dharma-Seeking Sovereign King Bodhisattva, Inexhaustible Bodhisattva, and countless other great bodhisattvas have done — for the sake of seeking the Dharma, wishing to open, reveal, and expound the true Dharma, to benefit sentient beings and cause every one of them to be entirely satisfied, they relinquish their nails with the flesh still attached to whoever begs for them. The bodhisattva then, with this wholesome root, dedicates it in this way, namely: 'May all sentient beings all obtain nails marked like the coppery-red of every buddha; may all sentient beings obtain lustrous nails, adorned with excellent marks; may all sentient beings obtain bright and pure nails, foremost in clarity; may all sentient beings obtain the nails of omniscience, endowed with the mark of a great being; may all sentient beings obtain incomparable nails, unstained by anything in any world; may all sentient beings obtain wondrously adorned nails, their light universally illumining every world; may all sentient beings obtain unbreakable nails, pure and without any flaw; may all sentient beings obtain nails marked with the skillful means for entering every buddha-dharma, their vast wisdom entirely pure; may all sentient beings obtain well-born nails, the karmic fruit of a bodhisattva never anything but pure and wondrous; may all sentient beings obtain the nails of the great guide of omniscience, emitting a treasury of immeasurable, wondrous, colored light.' This is the bodhisattva mahāsattva's dedication of wholesome roots when giving his nails with the flesh attached for the sake of seeking the Dharma; it is so that sentient beings may be fully endowed with the unobstructed power of every buddha's own nails of omniscience.
The bodhisattva's reply — "only give me the Dharma" — never even names what he is giving up in return. Where every other gift in this dedication is preceded by careful description of what is at stake, here the body is dismissed in a single clause, "take and use them however you wish," as though it barely merits mention next to what is actually being sought.
Part 303 Complete
This closes the section on giving the nails for the sake of the Dharma (為求法故施連肉爪甲) within the sixth dedication. Chapter 25 continues in Part 304 as the bodhisattva mahāsattva, told that a single teaching costs a leap into a pit of fire seven fathoms deep, receives the news with joy and asks only to be shown the way in.