A Mind Like Illusion, Fascicle 30 Complete
The verse recapitulating the eighth dedication reaches its final lines, turning inward to a question the sūtra has approached before but rarely stated so plainly: where, exactly, is the mind? Not outside the body, and not inside it either — its very nature, the verse concludes, does not exist at all, and knowing this, the bodhisattva sees the mind as like an illusion, freeing him to cultivate every practice for the sake of every living being.
Neither Inside Nor Outside
"The bodhisattva contemplates that the mind is not outside, nor can it be found inside either" is a question with a long history in Buddhist meditation manuals, most famously posed to a disciple searching for his own mind. Here it closes an entire dedication: having compared karma itself to the boundlessness of true suchness across two full Parts of verse, the sūtra ends by turning that same inquiry on the one thing doing all the comparing.
菩薩一切業果報，悉為無盡智所印，
如是無盡自性盡，是故無盡方便滅。
菩薩觀心不在外，亦復不得在於內，
知其心性無所有，我法皆離永寂滅。
彼諸佛子如是知，一切法性常空寂，
無有一法能造作，同於諸佛悟無我。
了知一切諸世間，悉與真如性相等，
見是不可思議相，是則能知無相法。
若能住是甚深法，常樂修行菩薩行，
為欲利益諸群生，大誓莊嚴無退轉。
Every karmic fruit of the bodhisattva is entirely sealed by inexhaustible wisdom; this very inexhaustibility exhausts self-nature itself, and it is for this reason that it is extinguished through inexhaustible skillful means. The bodhisattva contemplates that the mind is not outside, nor can it be found inside either; knowing that the mind's own nature does not exist at all, both self and dharma are left behind, forever quiescent. Those children of the Buddha know it in this way: the nature of every dharma is forever empty and still; there is not a single dharma able to act as a maker, the same as every buddha's own awakening to selflessness. They fully know that every world is entirely equal to the very nature of true suchness; seeing this inconceivable mark, they are thereby able to know the markless Dharma. If one is able to abide in this profound Dharma, forever delighting in cultivating the practice of a bodhisattva, it is for the sake of benefiting every living being, adorned with a great vow that never regresses.
是則超過於世間，不起生死妄分別，
了達其心如幻化，勤修眾行度群生。
菩薩正念觀世間，一切皆從業緣得，
為欲救度修諸行，普攝三界無遺者。
了知眾生種種異，悉是想行所分別，
於此觀察悉明了，而不壞於諸法性。
智者了知諸佛法，以如是行而迴向，
哀愍一切諸眾生，令於實法正思惟。」
This then transcends the world, giving rise to no deluded discrimination of birth and death; fully comprehending that the mind is like an illusion, one diligently cultivates every practice to deliver living beings. The bodhisattva, with true mindfulness, contemplates the world: everything is obtained entirely from karmic conditions; wishing to rescue and deliver beings, he cultivates every practice, universally gathering in the three realms without leaving anyone behind. He fully knows that the various differences among sentient beings are entirely discriminated by perception and mental formation; contemplating this, he understands it entirely clearly, and yet does not destroy the nature of any dharma. The wise fully know the Dharma of every buddha, and dedicate with this very practice; grieving for and pitying every sentient being, they cause them to reflect truly upon the real Dharma."
The verse's final turn is characteristic of this whole dedication: having dissolved the mind itself into no-place and no-nature, it does not end in withdrawal but in the opposite — "grieving for and pitying every sentient being, they cause them to reflect truly upon the real Dharma." An unfindable mind, it turns out, is precisely what makes boundless compassion for others possible, rather than an obstacle to it.
Part 356 Complete — Fascicle 30 of 80
This closes both the eighth dedication's verse recapitulation and fascicle thirty of the Avataṃsaka Sūtra. Fascicle thirty-one opens Part 357 with the ninth dedication, "the dedication of non-attachment, non-bondage, and liberation" (無著無縛解脫迴向) — the bodhisattva holding every wholesome root in reverence, from leaving behind birth and death to bowing before a stūpa, to urging every buddha to expound the Dharma.