Suffering Owed to the Worst of Persons
Following Wholesome-Dharma-Seeking Bodhisattva and Courageous King Bodhisattva, the bodhisattva mahāsattva endures immeasurable suffering for the sake of the Dharma — and then goes further still, taking upon his own body the suffering owed even to those who slander the true Dharma, who are covered by evil karma, who are possessed by the activity of Māra. Whatever affliction such persons themselves deserve, he receives it entirely in their place, dedicated through ten vows on a happiness beyond compare and, finally, the unobstructed happiness of a buddha.
No One Excluded From the Substitution
Earlier in this dedication, the bodhisattva offered his own body in place of a single condemned prisoner's. Here the scope widens past any limit: he takes on the suffering owed to slanderers of the Dharma itself and those possessed by Māra — precisely the figures a lesser compassion might exclude first. The passage draws no line between beings worth rescuing and beings who have made themselves an enemy of the Dharma; both categories collapse into the same undivided vow.
「佛子！菩薩摩訶薩為求正法，分別演說，開菩薩道，示菩提路，趣無上智，勤修十力，廣一切智心，獲無礙智法，令眾生清淨住菩薩境界。勤修大智護佛菩提時，以身具受無量苦惱，如求善法菩薩、勇猛王菩薩，及餘無量諸大菩薩。為求法故，受無量苦，乃至攝取誹謗正法、惡業所覆、魔業所持極大惡人；彼所應受一切苦惱，以求法故，悉皆為受。以此善根如是迴向，所謂：『願一切眾生永離一切苦惱逼迫，成就安樂自在神通；願一切眾生永離諸苦，得一切樂；願一切眾生永滅苦蘊，得照現身，恒受安樂；願一切眾生超出苦獄，成就智行；願一切眾生見安隱道，離諸惡趣；願一切眾生得法喜樂，永斷眾苦；願一切眾生永拔眾苦，互相慈愛，無損害心；願一切眾生得諸佛樂，離生死苦；願一切眾生成就清淨無比安樂，一切苦惱無能損害；願一切眾生得一切勝樂，究竟具足佛無礙樂。』是為菩薩摩訶薩為求法故受眾苦時善根迴向；為欲救護一切眾生，令離險難，住一切智無所障礙解脫處故。
"Child of the Buddha! For the sake of seeking the true Dharma, the bodhisattva mahāsattva explains and expounds it in detail, opening the bodhisattva path, revealing the road to bodhi, advancing toward unsurpassed wisdom, diligently cultivating the ten powers, expanding the mind of omniscience, obtaining the unobstructed dharma of wisdom, causing sentient beings to abide purely within the bodhisattva's own domain. While diligently cultivating great wisdom to protect the Buddha's own bodhi, he endures immeasurable suffering and affliction with his own body, just as Wholesome-Dharma-Seeking Bodhisattva, Courageous King Bodhisattva, and countless other great bodhisattvas have done. For the sake of seeking the Dharma, he endures immeasurable suffering, even taking upon himself the suffering owed to the very worst of persons — those who slander the true Dharma, are covered by evil karma, and are possessed by the activity of Māra; whatever suffering and affliction they themselves ought to receive, for the sake of seeking the Dharma, he takes it all upon himself entirely. With this wholesome root, he dedicates it in this way, namely: 'May all sentient beings forever leave behind every affliction and oppression, accomplishing peace, happiness, mastery, and spiritual power; may all sentient beings forever leave behind every suffering, and obtain every happiness; may all sentient beings forever extinguish the aggregate of suffering, obtain a body that illuminates and manifests, forever receiving peace and happiness; may all sentient beings transcend the prison of suffering, accomplishing the practice of wisdom; may all sentient beings behold the path of safety and peace, leaving behind every evil destiny; may all sentient beings obtain the joy and happiness of the Dharma, forever cutting off every suffering; may all sentient beings forever uproot every suffering, loving one another with kindness, their minds free of any thought of harm; may all sentient beings obtain the happiness of every buddha, leaving behind the suffering of birth and death; may all sentient beings accomplish a pure happiness beyond compare, harmed by no affliction at all; may all sentient beings obtain every supreme happiness, ultimately fully endowed with the Buddha's own unobstructed happiness.' This is the bodhisattva mahāsattva's dedication of wholesome roots when enduring every suffering for the sake of seeking the Dharma; it is so that he may rescue and protect every sentient being, causing them to leave behind every peril and difficulty, and abide in the unobstructed place of liberation that is omniscience.
"Loving one another with kindness, their minds free of any thought of harm" sits among vows about vast cosmic happiness like something almost ordinary — and that is exactly its force. Having just described taking on the suffering of the very worst persons imaginable, the dedication does not escalate further into grander abstraction; it comes back down to the simple, achievable wish that beings stop harming each other.
Part 305 Complete
This closes the section on enduring suffering for the sake of the Dharma (為求法故受眾苦) within the sixth dedication. Chapter 25 continues in Part 306 as the bodhisattva mahāsattva, seeking the Dharma even while enthroned as a king, relinquishes his lands, cities, treasuries, palaces, wife and children, and his very kingship for even a single word of teaching.