Present in Every Night and Every Day Alike
The true-suchness similes turn to the measurement of time itself: suchness pervades the night; so does this dedication, emitting great light. Suchness pervades the day; so does this dedication, causing beings to behold a buddha's own spiritual transformations. The comparisons move outward from a single night and day through the half-month, the month, the year, and the kalpas of formation and dissolution, to the very limit of the future itself.
Every Scale of Time, One After Another
Where earlier similes described qualities suchness has, this stretch traces units of time in ascending order — night, day, half-month, month, year, kalpa, the very limit of the future — as though the sūtra were demonstrating that no scale is too small or too vast for the dedication of wholesome roots to pervade completely, in exactly the way true suchness already does.
譬如真如，無有分別；善根迴向亦復如是，於諸世間，無所分別。譬如真如，遍一切身；善根迴向亦復如是，遍十方剎無量身中。譬如真如，體性無生；善根迴向亦復如是，方便示生而無所生。譬如真如，無所不在；善根迴向亦復如是，十方三世諸佛土中，普現神通而無不在。譬如真如，遍在於夜；善根迴向亦復如是，於一切夜，放大光明，施作佛事。譬如真如，遍在於晝；善根迴向亦復如是，悉令一切在晝眾生，見佛神變，演不退輪，離垢清淨，無空過者。譬如真如，遍在半月及以一月；善根迴向亦復如是，於諸世間次第時節，得善方便，於一念中知一切時。譬如真如，遍在年歲；善根迴向亦復如是，住無量劫明了成熟，一切諸根皆令圓滿。譬如真如，遍成壞劫；善根迴向亦復如是，住一切劫清淨無染，教化眾生咸令清淨。譬如真如，盡未來際；善根迴向亦復如是，盡未來際，修諸菩薩清淨妙行，成滿大願無有退轉。譬如真如，遍住三世；善根迴向亦復如是，令諸眾生於一剎那見三世佛，未曾一念而有捨離。譬如真如，遍一切處；善根迴向亦復如是，超出三界，周行一切，悉得自在。譬如真如，住有無法；善根迴向亦復如是，了達一切有無之法畢竟清淨。譬如真如，體性清淨；善根迴向亦復如是，能以方便集助道法，淨治一切諸菩薩行。譬如真如，體性明潔；善根迴向亦復如是，令諸菩薩悉得三昧明潔之心。譬如真如，體性無垢；善根迴向亦復如是，遠離諸垢，滿足一切諸清淨意。譬如真如，無我、我所；善根迴向亦復如是，以無我、我所清淨之心，充滿十方諸佛國土。譬如真如，體性平等；善根迴向亦復如是，獲得平等一切智智，照了諸法，離諸癡翳。
Just as true suchness has no discrimination, so too is this dedication of wholesome roots: within every world, it holds no discrimination. Just as true suchness pervades every body, so too is this dedication of wholesome roots: it pervades immeasurable bodies throughout the lands of the ten directions. Just as true suchness's very essence is unborn, so too is this dedication of wholesome roots: with skillful means it manifests birth, and yet nothing is truly born. Just as true suchness is present everywhere without exception, so too is this dedication of wholesome roots: throughout the buddha-lands of the ten directions and three times, it universally manifests spiritual power, present everywhere without exception. Just as true suchness pervades the night, so too is this dedication of wholesome roots: throughout every night, it emits great light, performing the work of a buddha. Just as true suchness pervades the day, so too is this dedication of wholesome roots: it causes every sentient being present in the day to behold a buddha's own spiritual transformations, expounding the never-regressing wheel, leaving defilement behind in purity, letting none pass by in vain. Just as true suchness pervades half a month and a full month alike, so too is this dedication of wholesome roots: amid the successive seasons of every world, it attains skillful means, knowing every time within a single thought. Just as true suchness pervades the years, so too is this dedication of wholesome roots: abiding through immeasurable kalpas, clearly understanding and bringing to maturity, it causes every faculty to become entirely perfected. Just as true suchness pervades the kalpas of formation and dissolution, so too is this dedication of wholesome roots: abiding through every kalpa, pure and undefiled, it teaches and transforms sentient beings, causing them all to become pure. Just as true suchness extends to the very limit of the future, so too is this dedication of wholesome roots: to the very limit of the future, it cultivates every pure and wondrous practice of a bodhisattva, fulfilling its great vows without ever regressing. Just as true suchness abides pervasively throughout the three times, so too is this dedication of wholesome roots: it causes sentient beings, within a single instant, to behold the buddhas of the three times, never once, for a single thought, forsaking them. Just as true suchness pervades every place, so too is this dedication of wholesome roots: transcending the three realms, moving through everything, it attains sovereign mastery entirely. Just as true suchness abides within the dharmas of existence and non-existence, so too is this dedication of wholesome roots: it fully comprehends that every dharma of existence and non-existence is ultimately pure. Just as true suchness's very essence is pure, so too is this dedication of wholesome roots: with skillful means it gathers the dharmas that assist the path, purifying and cultivating every bodhisattva practice. Just as true suchness's very essence is bright and undefiled, so too is this dedication of wholesome roots: it causes every bodhisattva to attain a mind of meditative absorption, bright and undefiled. Just as true suchness's very essence is free of any defilement, so too is this dedication of wholesome roots: leaving every defilement behind, it fully satisfies every pure intention. Just as true suchness is free of self and what belongs to self, so too is this dedication of wholesome roots: with a mind pure of self and what belongs to self, it fills the buddha-lands of the ten directions entirely. Just as true suchness's very essence is equal, so too is this dedication of wholesome roots: it attains the equal wisdom of all-wisdom, illuminating and comprehending every dharma, leaving behind every clouding delusion.
"With skillful means it manifests birth, and yet nothing is truly born" sits early in this Part's list, almost in passing, but it quietly resolves a tension the whole simile series depends on: if the dedication truly shares suchness's unborn nature, how can it also act within time — emit light at night, teach by day, mature beings across kalpas? The answer offered here is that its activity is itself a skillful manifestation, not a departure from what it fundamentally is.
Part 351 Complete
This continues the eighth dedication's series of true-suchness similes. Chapter 25 continues in Part 352 as the comparisons turn toward suchness transcending all measure and number, becoming a great cloud of Dharma spreading throughout the ten directions.