"How Wondrous! The True Dharma Is Easy to Obtain"
Someone able to teach the Dharma tells the bodhisattva that the price is a leap into a pit of fire seven fathoms deep — and the news makes him leap up in joy. His reasoning is arithmetic before it is anything else: he would gladly endure Avīci hell itself for the sake of the Dharma, so a single pit of fire, by comparison, is almost nothing. Following Dharma-Seeking King Bodhisattva and Vajra-Contemplation Bodhisattva, he enters the fire, then dedicates the act through ten vows extinguishing the blazing fire of craving, hatred, and delusion.
A Bargain, Not a Sacrifice
What makes this passage distinct from the ones around it is its tone: there is no anguish here, no careful contemplation of impermanence to make the suffering bearable — only delighted relief. The bodhisattva does the arithmetic in real time, comparing a human pit of fire against the immeasurable torments of hell he would already accept, and finds the actual price almost laughably small. Fear does not need to be overcome when the exchange rate is understood this clearly.
「佛子！菩薩摩訶薩求佛法藏，恭敬尊重，生難得想。有能說者來語之言：『若能投身七仞火阬，當施汝法。』菩薩聞已，歡喜踊躍，作是思惟：『我為法故，尚應久住阿鼻獄等一切惡趣受無量苦，何況纔入人間火阬即得聞法？奇哉！正法甚為易得，不受地獄無量楚毒，但入火阬即便得聞。但為我說，我入火阬。』如求善法王菩薩、金剛思惟菩薩，為求法故，入火阬中。菩薩爾時，以此善根如是迴向，所謂：『願一切眾生住佛所住一切智法，永不退轉無上菩提；願一切眾生離諸險難，受佛安樂；願一切眾生得無畏心，離諸恐怖；願一切眾生常樂求法，具足喜樂，眾法莊嚴；願一切眾生離諸惡趣，滅除一切三毒熾火；願一切眾生常得安樂，具足如來勝妙樂事；願一切眾生得菩薩心，永離一切貪、恚、癡火；願一切眾生悉得菩薩諸三昧樂，普見諸佛，心大歡喜；願一切眾生善說正法，於法究竟，常無忘失；願一切眾生具足菩薩神通妙樂，究竟安住一切種智。』是為菩薩摩訶薩為求正法投火阬時善根迴向；為令眾生離障礙業，皆得具足智慧火故。
"Child of the Buddha! When the bodhisattva mahāsattva seeks the treasury of buddha-dharma, he reveres and honors it, giving rise to the thought that it is rare to encounter. If there is someone able to expound it who comes and says to him: 'If you can throw yourself into a pit of fire seven fathoms deep, I will give you the Dharma,' the bodhisattva, having heard this, leaps up in joy, and reflects: 'For the sake of the Dharma, I should be willing to dwell for a long time in Avīci hell and every other evil destiny, enduring immeasurable suffering — how much more should I be willing merely to enter a human pit of fire and thereby hear the Dharma? How wondrous! The true Dharma is exceedingly easy to obtain — I need not undergo the immeasurable torments of hell; I need only enter this pit of fire, and I will hear it at once. Only speak it to me — I will enter the pit of fire.' This is as Dharma-Seeking King Bodhisattva, Vajra-Contemplation Bodhisattva, and countless other great bodhisattvas, for the sake of seeking the Dharma, have entered a pit of fire. The bodhisattva then, with this wholesome root, dedicates it in this way, namely: 'May all sentient beings abide in the very dharma of omniscience in which the Buddha abides, forever never regressing from unsurpassed bodhi; may all sentient beings leave behind every peril and difficulty, and receive the Buddha's own peace and happiness; may all sentient beings obtain a mind free of fear, leaving behind every terror; may all sentient beings forever delight in seeking the Dharma, fully endowed with joy and happiness, adorned by every dharma; may all sentient beings leave behind every evil destiny, extinguishing the blazing fire of the three poisons entirely; may all sentient beings forever obtain peace and happiness, fully endowed with the Tathāgata's own supreme and wondrous joys; may all sentient beings obtain the bodhisattva's own mind, forever leaving behind the fire of every craving, hatred, and delusion; may all sentient beings all obtain the joy of every bodhisattva's samādhi, universally beholding every buddha, their minds greatly rejoicing; may all sentient beings skillfully expound the true Dharma, ultimate within the Dharma, forever without forgetting it; may all sentient beings be fully endowed with a bodhisattva's spiritual powers and wondrous joy, ultimately abiding in the wisdom of all modes.' This is the bodhisattva mahāsattva's dedication of wholesome roots when throwing himself into a pit of fire for the sake of seeking the true Dharma; it is so that sentient beings may leave behind every obstructing karma, and all be fully endowed with the fire of wisdom.
Fire runs through this entire passage as both threat and cure: the literal pit of fire he leaps into becomes, in the dedication, the fire of the three poisons he wishes extinguished, and finally "the fire of wisdom" sentient beings are wished to be endowed with. The same element that could destroy him is the element the passage keeps reaching for as its own metaphor of what the Dharma actually does.
Part 304 Complete
This closes the section on entering the pit of fire for the true Dharma (為求正法投火阬) within the sixth dedication. Chapter 25 continues in Part 305 as the bodhisattva mahāsattva, following Wholesome-Dharma-Seeking Bodhisattva and Courageous King Bodhisattva, willingly endures immeasurable suffering — even that owed to slanderers of the true Dharma — for the sake of the Dharma.