The Ground Itself, Given Away
After giving away his own body across two entire fascicles, the bodhisattva turns outward to something equally fundamental: the earth itself. He gives land for monasteries, for the saṃgha's own dwellings, for parents and every field of merit down to the poor and destitute, for the building of stūpas — and in every place fully provides whatever is needed to use that land without fear. Ten dedication-vows follow, each transposing the earth into a quality of mind: a mind like the earth, forever pure, harboring no evil thought toward any being.
What the Ground Was Always Doing
The earth is an unusual object to give away because, unlike a body part or a possession, it was never really the bodhisattva's private property to begin with — it is simply what everything else stands on. The dedication seems to recognize this: rather than wishing for a transformed version of the land, it wishes for a mind that behaves the way land already behaves, bearing everyone equally, without favor or grievance.
「佛子！菩薩摩訶薩捨於大地，或施諸佛，造立精舍；或施菩薩及善知識，隨意所用；或施眾僧，以為住處；或施父母，或施別人、聲聞、獨覺種種福田，乃至一切貧窮、孤露及餘四眾，隨意悉與，令無所乏；或施造立如來塔廟。於如是等諸處之中，悉為辦具資生什物，令隨意用，無所恐懼。菩薩摩訶薩隨何方所布施地時，以諸善根如是迴向，所謂：『願一切眾生具足清淨一切智地，悉到普賢眾行彼岸；願一切眾生得總持地，正念受持一切佛法；願一切眾生得住持力，常能守護一切佛教；願一切眾生得如地心，於諸眾生，意常清淨，無有惡念；願一切眾生持諸佛種，成就菩薩諸地次第，無有斷絕；願一切眾生普為一切作安隱處，悉令調伏，住清淨道；願一切眾生同諸如來利益世間，普使勤修安住佛力；願一切眾生普為世間之所愛樂，悉令安住無上佛樂；願一切眾生獲善方便，住佛諸力、無畏法中；願一切眾生得如地智，自在修行一切佛法。』是為菩薩摩訶薩施大地時善根迴向，為令眾生皆得究竟一切如來清淨地故。
"Child of the Buddha! The bodhisattva mahāsattva relinquishes the great earth itself — sometimes giving it to buddhas, for the building of monasteries; sometimes giving it to bodhisattvas and good spiritual friends, to use however they wish; sometimes giving it to the saṃgha, to serve as their dwelling place; sometimes giving it to parents, or to other individuals, to śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas as various fields of merit, even to every poor and destitute, solitary person, and to the rest of the fourfold assembly, giving it entirely according to their wishes, so that they lack for nothing; sometimes giving it for the building of a tathāgata's own stūpa and shrine. In every such place, he fully provides the goods and provisions needed for living, so that they may be used however wished, without any fear. Whenever the bodhisattva mahāsattva gives land in any place, with every wholesome root, he dedicates it in this way, namely: 'May all sentient beings be fully endowed with the pure ground of omniscience, all reaching the further shore of Samantabhadra's own multitude of practices; may all sentient beings obtain the ground of dhāraṇī, upholding every buddha-dharma with right mindfulness; may all sentient beings obtain the power to abide and uphold, forever able to guard and protect every buddha's own teaching; may all sentient beings obtain a mind like the earth, their intention forever pure toward every sentient being, harboring no evil thought at all; may all sentient beings uphold the seed of every buddha, accomplishing the sequence of every bodhisattva ground without interruption; may all sentient beings universally become a place of peace and security for everyone, causing all to be subdued and abide upon the pure path; may all sentient beings, the same as every tathāgata, benefit the world, universally causing all to diligently cultivate and abide in the power of buddhahood; may all sentient beings be universally loved and delighted in by the world, causing all to abide securely in the unsurpassed happiness of buddhahood; may all sentient beings obtain skillful means, abiding within every power and fearlessness of a buddha; may all sentient beings obtain wisdom like the earth, freely and sovereignly practicing every buddha-dharma.' This is the bodhisattva mahāsattva's dedication of wholesome roots when giving the great earth; it is so that sentient beings may all ultimately obtain the pure ground of every tathāgata.
The Chinese word for "ground" (地) carries both senses at once throughout this dedication — literal soil and the bodhisattva grounds (地) of the path itself, the staged levels a bodhisattva ascends toward buddhahood. Giving away physical land and progressing through the spiritual grounds are treated, by the pun the text leans into, as versions of the same word doing the same underlying work.
Part 310 Complete
This closes the section on giving the great earth (施大地) within the sixth dedication. Chapter 25 continues in Part 311 as the bodhisattva mahāsattva gives away hundreds of thousands of servants and attendants, skilled and gentle in every craft, to buddhas, the saṃgha, parents, and the suffering and destitute.