A Body Vowed to Become a Lamp
Having offered his body to every buddha, the bodhisattva now gives that same body to every sentient being — not as an object handed over once, but as a vow that his own body become ten different things at once: a great lamp illuminating all, every kind of pleasure and provision, a treasury of the wondrous Dharma, pure light, the world's own reflection, a true good spiritual friend, a level road to walk, complete peace and happiness, and the bright, pure sun.
A Body That Becomes Ten Things at Once
Where earlier gifts asked what could be done for another being, this vow asks what the bodhisattva's own body could simply become — a lamp for someone in the dark, a road for someone with nowhere to walk, a sun that treats every being with the same equal warmth. The ten things named are not sequential acts but a single body wished into ten simultaneous forms of usefulness, each answering a different kind of need.
「佛子！菩薩摩訶薩以身布施一切眾生，為欲普令成就善根，憶念善根，菩薩摩訶薩自願其身為大明燈，普能照耀一切眾生；為眾樂具，普能攝受一切眾生；為妙法藏，普能任持一切眾生；為淨光明，普能開曉一切眾生；為世光影，普令眾生常得覩見；為善根因緣，普令眾生常得值遇；為真善知識，令一切眾生悉蒙教誘；為平坦道，令一切眾生皆得履踐；為無有上具足安樂，令一切眾生離苦清淨；為明淨日，普作世間平等利益。菩薩爾時，以諸善根如是迴向，所謂：『願一切眾生常親近佛，入佛智地；願一切眾生得隨順智，住無上覺；願一切眾生常處佛會，意善調伏；願一切眾生所行有則，具佛威儀；願一切眾生悉得涅槃，深解法義；願一切眾生具知足行，生如來家；願一切眾生捨無明欲，住佛志樂；願一切眾生生勝善根，坐菩提樹；願一切眾生殺煩惱賊，離怨害心；願一切眾生具足護持一切佛法。』是為菩薩摩訶薩以身布施一切眾生善根迴向；為欲利益一切眾生，令得無上安隱處故。
"Child of the Buddha! The bodhisattva mahāsattva gives his own body to every sentient being, wishing to universally cause them to accomplish wholesome roots and be mindful of wholesome roots; the bodhisattva mahāsattva vows that his own body become a great and brilliant lamp, universally able to illuminate every sentient being; that it become every kind of pleasure and provision, universally able to embrace every sentient being; that it become a treasury of the wondrous Dharma, universally able to sustain and uphold every sentient being; that it become pure light, universally able to awaken and enlighten every sentient being; that it become the world's own reflected light, universally causing sentient beings to forever be able to behold it; that it become the very cause and condition of wholesome roots, universally causing sentient beings to forever encounter them; that it become a true good spiritual friend, causing every sentient being to be entirely guided and instructed; that it become a level road, causing every sentient being to be able to walk upon it; that it become supreme, complete peace and happiness, causing every sentient being to leave behind suffering and become pure; that it become the bright and pure sun, universally performing the world's own equal benefit. The bodhisattva then, with every wholesome root, dedicates it in this way, namely: 'May all sentient beings forever draw near to the buddha, entering the buddha's own ground of wisdom; may all sentient beings obtain wisdom in accordance, abiding in unsurpassed awakening; may all sentient beings forever abide within the buddha's own assembly, their intention well subdued; may all sentient beings, in whatever they do, have a standard to follow, fully endowed with the buddha's own dignified deportment; may all sentient beings all attain nirvāṇa, deeply understanding the meaning of the Dharma; may all sentient beings be fully endowed with the practice of knowing contentment, and be born into the household of the Tathāgata; may all sentient beings relinquish the desire born of ignorance, and abide in the buddha's own aspiration and joy; may all sentient beings give rise to supreme wholesome roots, and sit beneath the bodhi tree; may all sentient beings slay the thief of affliction, and leave behind every mind of enmity and harm; may all sentient beings be fully endowed with upholding and protecting every buddha-dharma.' This is the bodhisattva mahāsattva's dedication of wholesome roots when giving his own body to every sentient being; it is so that he may benefit every sentient being, causing them to obtain the unsurpassed place of peace and security.
"The world's own reflected light" is the subtlest of the ten images: unlike a lamp, which produces its own illumination, a reflection has nothing of its own to give except the light it is already receiving. Even this, the passage suggests, is a legitimate way to be useful to every sentient being — simply making visible what would otherwise pass unseen.
Part 314 Complete
This closes the section on giving one's own body to every sentient being (以身布施一切眾生) within the sixth dedication. Chapter 25 continues in Part 315 as the bodhisattva mahāsattva gives his own body to attend upon the buddhas, regarding each one with the gratitude of a child toward a parent.