Ten Minds That Never Arose
The bodhisattva gives away hundreds of thousands of koṭis of nayutas of his own palace attendants and courtly women — every one dignified, accomplished, and skillful, adorned with every garment and fragrance. What the passage dwells on, though, is not their beauty but the bodhisattva's own interior state while giving them away: ten kinds of mind, each named only to be denied — no fondness, no longing regard, no indulgent attachment, no bondage, no grasping, no craving, no discrimination, no pursuit, no grasping at any mark, no desire.
A Gift Measured by What It Did Not Cost
Where most gifts in this dedication are described by what they gave the recipient, this one is described almost entirely by what the giver did not feel — ten minds enumerated in careful negation. The absence of attachment, rather than the scale of the gift itself, becomes the actual substance of what is being demonstrated here.
「佛子！菩薩摩訶薩所有一切內宮眷屬、妓侍眾女，皆顏貌端正、才能具足，談笑歌舞悉皆巧妙，種種衣服、種種華香而以嚴身，見者歡喜，情無厭足。如是寶女百千萬億那由他數，皆由菩薩善業所生，隨意自在，敬順無失；盡以布施諸來乞者，而於其中無愛樂心、無顧戀心、無耽著心、無繫縛心、無執取心、無貪染心、無分別心、無隨逐心、無取相心、無樂欲心。菩薩爾時，觀諸善根，為欲令一切眾生咸得出離故迴向，得佛法喜故迴向，於不堅固中而得堅固故迴向，得金剛智不可壞心故迴向，入佛道場故迴向，到於彼岸故迴向，得無上菩提心故迴向，能以智慧了達諸法故迴向，出生一切善根故迴向，入三世諸佛家故迴向。佛子！菩薩摩訶薩住如是法，生如來家；增長諸佛清淨勝因，出生最勝一切智道；深入菩薩廣大智業，滅除一切世間垢惱，常能供施功德福田；為諸眾生宣說妙法，善巧安立，令其修習諸清淨行，常勤攝取一切善根。
"Child of the Buddha! Every one of the bodhisattva mahāsattva's own palace attendants and courtly women — all of dignified and beautiful countenance, fully accomplished in every skill, all skillful and wondrous in conversation, laughter, song, and dance, adorning themselves with every kind of garment and every kind of flower and fragrance — delight whoever beholds them, their fondness never sated. Such jeweled women, numbering hundreds of thousands of koṭis of nayutas, are all born from the bodhisattva's own wholesome karma, sovereign and free according to his wish, reverent and compliant without fail; he gives every one of them entirely to whoever comes begging for them, and within this giving he holds no mind of fondness, no mind of longing regard, no mind of indulgent attachment, no mind of bondage, no mind of grasping, no mind of craving and defilement, no mind of discrimination, no mind of pursuit, no mind that grasps at any mark, and no mind of desire. The bodhisattva then, contemplating every wholesome root, dedicates it so that all sentient beings may entirely attain liberation, dedicates it so that they may obtain the joy of the Dharma, dedicates it so that they may obtain firmness within what is impermanent, dedicates it so that they may obtain the unbreakable mind of vajra wisdom, dedicates it so that they may enter the awakening-site of the Buddha, dedicates it so that they may reach the further shore, dedicates it so that they may obtain the unsurpassed bodhi-mind, dedicates it so that they may thoroughly understand every dharma through wisdom, dedicates it so that they may give birth to every wholesome root, and dedicates it so that they may enter the household of every buddha across the three periods of time. Child of the Buddha! The bodhisattva mahāsattva, abiding in this dharma, is born into the household of the Tathāgata; he increases the pure and supreme cause of every buddha, giving birth to the most supreme path of omniscience; he enters deeply into a bodhisattva's own vast and expansive activity of wisdom, extinguishing every worldly defilement and affliction, forever able to provide the field of merit for others; for the sake of sentient beings, he expounds the wondrous Dharma, skillfully establishing it, causing them to cultivate every pure practice, forever diligently gathering every wholesome root.
"No mind that grasps at any mark" sits near the end of the ten denials and reaches furthest: even the bare mental act of fixing on a feature — a face, a skill, a particular loveliness — is named and set aside. The gift is complete only when there is nothing left in the giver's mind for the recipient to have been reduced to.
Part 318 Continues
The dedication for giving away one's palace attendants continues in Part 319 with ten formal vows and a closing series of twelve further purposes.