Just as Suchness Pervades, So Does This Dedication
The eighth dedication now explains its own name directly, through a series of parallel similes that will run for many Parts to come: for every quality attributed to true suchness (真如, tathatā) — boundless, unchanging, without any fixed nature of its own, beyond comparison — the same quality is claimed for the dedication of wholesome roots itself. This opening set of eighteen pairs establishes the pattern: suchness pervades every place; so does this dedication.
A Dedication Named for What It Resembles
The pattern repeats with the regularity of a mantra: "just as true suchness is X, so too is this dedication of wholesome roots Y." Rather than defining suchness abstractly, the sūtra lets a hundred such comparisons accumulate, each one a small proof that the dedication itself has taken on the very characteristics — boundlessness, changelessness, incomparability — of the reality it is named after.
譬如真如，遍一切處，無有邊際；善根迴向亦復如是，遍一切處，無有邊際。譬如真如，真實為性；善根迴向亦復如是，了一切法真實為性。譬如真如，恒守本性，無有改變；善根迴向亦復如是，守其本性，始終不改。譬如真如，以一切法無性為性；善根迴向亦復如是，了一切法無性為性。譬如真如，無相為相；善根迴向亦復如是，了一切法無相為相。譬如真如，若有得者，終無退轉；善根迴向亦復如是，若有得者，於諸佛法，永不退轉。譬如真如，一切諸佛之所行處；善根迴向亦復如是，一切如來所行之處。譬如真如，離境界相而為境界；善根迴向亦復如是，離境界相而為三世一切諸佛圓滿境界。譬如真如，能有安立；善根迴向亦復如是，悉能安立一切眾生。譬如真如，性常隨順；善根迴向亦復如是，盡未來劫，隨順不斷。譬如真如，無能測量；善根迴向亦復如是，等虛空界，盡眾生心，無能測量。譬如真如，充滿一切；善根迴向亦復如是，一剎那中普周法界。譬如真如，常住無盡；善根迴向亦復如是，究竟無盡。譬如真如，無有比對；善根迴向亦復如是，普能圓滿一切佛法，無有比對。譬如真如，體性堅固；善根迴向亦復如是，體性堅固，非諸惑惱之所能沮。譬如真如，不可破壞；善根迴向亦復如是，一切眾生不能損壞。譬如真如，照明為體；善根迴向亦復如是，以普照明而為其性。譬如真如，無所不在；善根迴向亦復如是，於一切處悉無不在。
Just as true suchness pervades every place, without any boundary or limit, so too is this dedication of wholesome roots: it pervades every place, without any boundary or limit. Just as true suchness has the true and real as its nature, so too is this dedication of wholesome roots: it comprehends every dharma as having the true and real as its nature. Just as true suchness forever holds to its own nature, never changing, so too is this dedication of wholesome roots: it holds to its own nature, never changing from beginning to end. Just as true suchness has the absence of any nature in every dharma as its own nature, so too is this dedication of wholesome roots: it comprehends the absence of any nature in every dharma as its own nature. Just as true suchness has the markless as its mark, so too is this dedication of wholesome roots: it comprehends every dharma's markless nature as its mark. Just as true suchness, once attained, is never regressed from, so too is this dedication of wholesome roots: once attained, one forever never regresses regarding the Dharma of any buddha. Just as true suchness is the very domain in which every buddha moves, so too is this dedication of wholesome roots: it is the very domain in which every Tathāgata moves. Just as true suchness leaves behind the mark of any objective domain and yet becomes the objective domain itself, so too is this dedication of wholesome roots: it leaves behind the mark of any objective domain and yet becomes the perfected objective domain of the buddhas of the three times. Just as true suchness is able to establish, so too is this dedication of wholesome roots: it is entirely able to establish every sentient being. Just as true suchness's nature forever accords, so too is this dedication of wholesome roots: throughout every future kalpa, it accords without interruption. Just as true suchness cannot be measured, so too is this dedication of wholesome roots: equal to the realm of empty space, exhausting the minds of every sentient being, it cannot be measured. Just as true suchness fills everything, so too is this dedication of wholesome roots: within a single instant, it universally pervades the Dharma-realm. Just as true suchness forever abides inexhaustibly, so too is this dedication of wholesome roots: it is ultimately inexhaustible. Just as true suchness has nothing to compare it to, so too is this dedication of wholesome roots: it is universally able to perfect every buddha's Dharma, having nothing to compare it to. Just as true suchness's very essence is firm and indestructible, so too is this dedication of wholesome roots: its very essence is firm and indestructible, unable to be undermined by any affliction or distress. Just as true suchness cannot be broken or destroyed, so too is this dedication of wholesome roots: no sentient being is able to damage or destroy it. Just as true suchness has illumination as its very essence, so too is this dedication of wholesome roots: universal illumination is its own nature. Just as true suchness is present everywhere without exception, so too is this dedication of wholesome roots: it is present everywhere, in every place, without exception.
The comparisons move quietly from the abstract to the concrete and back again — from "true suchness pervades every place" to the far more startling claim that this same pervasiveness belongs to an act of dedication, something a bodhisattva actually does. The sūtra is not merely describing suchness; it is arguing that a specific practice has come to share its nature.
Part 348 Complete
This continues the eighth dedication's series of true-suchness similes, the first of many Parts this list will span. Chapter 25 continues in Part 349 as the comparisons continue — suchness pervading every time, remaining pure even while abiding in the world, becoming the eye through which every being sees.