The Ninth Dedication Complete
The verse's final eleven quatrains close both the ninth dedication and fascicle thirty-one. Every kalpa, numerable or not, is known within a single thought; every mind and every dharma are entered equally; and the hymn ends on a direct promise to the reader: whoever knows this and dedicates accordingly is equal to the practice of every buddha throughout the three times, nothing in the whole world able to destroy him.
Every Kalpa Within a Single Thought
The verse returns to a theme it opened with — kalpas collapsed into a single thought — but now folds in every mind and every dharma as well, entered with the same equality, before closing on wisdom itself: giving rise to sentient beings, to every dharma, and to the very wisdom that comprehends them, the bodhisattva's own spiritual power reaching the same boundlessness.
有數無數一切劫，菩薩了知即一念，於此善入菩提行，常勤修習不退轉。
十方所有無量剎，或有雜染或清淨，及彼一切諸如來，菩薩悉能分別知。
於念念中悉明見，不可思議無量劫，如是三世無有餘，具足修治菩薩行。
於一切心平等入，入一切法亦平等，盡空佛剎斯亦然，彼最勝行悉了知。
出生眾生及諸法，所有種種諸智慧，菩薩神力亦復然，如是一切無窮盡。
諸微細智各差別，菩薩盡攝無有餘，同相異相悉善知，如是修行廣大行。
Every kalpa, whether numerable or innumerable, the bodhisattva fully knows as a single thought; skillfully entering the practice of enlightenment through this, he forever diligently cultivates it without regression. Every immeasurable land throughout the ten directions, whether defiled or pure, together with every Tathāgata within them, the bodhisattva is entirely able to discriminate and know. Within thought after thought he clearly beholds inconceivable, immeasurable kalpas; the three times in this way, without exception, he fully cultivates and perfects a bodhisattva's own practice. He enters equally into every mind, and enters equally into every dharma as well; every buddha-land throughout the whole of empty space is likewise so, and he fully comprehends that most supreme practice. Giving rise to sentient beings and to every dharma, and to every kind of wisdom they possess, the bodhisattva's own spiritual power is likewise so — all of it in this way, without end. Every subtle wisdom, each one distinct from the other, the bodhisattva fully gathers in, without exception; the same mark and the different mark, he knows them both well, cultivating vast and great practice in this way.
"He enters equally into every mind, and enters equally into every dharma as well" places the knowing subject and its objects of knowledge on precisely the same footing — minds are not privileged over dharmas, nor is the one who knows set apart from what is known. The whole hymn's final movement dissolves this distinction one more time before closing.
A Promise to Whoever Knows This
The hymn's final quatrains turn, for the first time, to address the reader directly: not only what the bodhisattva knows, but what awaits anyone who knows it too — equality with the practice of every buddha throughout the three times, an unbreakable mind, and the constant sight of every lamp the world holds.
十方無量諸佛剎，其中眾生各無量，趣生族類種種殊，住行力已悉能知。
過去未來現在世，所有一切諸導師，若人知此而迴向，則與彼佛行平等。
若人能修此迴向，則為學佛所行道，當得一切佛功德，及以一切佛智慧。
一切世間莫能壞，一切所學皆成就，常能憶念一切佛，常見一切世間燈。
菩薩勝行不可量，諸功德法亦如是，已住如來無上行，悉知諸佛自在力。」
Throughout the immeasurable buddha-lands of the ten directions, the sentient beings within each are immeasurable as well, their destinies, births, and every kind of distinct lineage — their abiding, their conduct, and their power, he is entirely able to know. Every guide throughout the past, the future, and the present world — if a person knows this and dedicates accordingly, then he is equal to the practice of those very buddhas. If a person is able to cultivate this dedication, then he studies the very path every buddha has practiced; he shall attain every buddha's own merit, together with every buddha's own wisdom. Nothing throughout the whole world is able to destroy him; everything he has studied is entirely accomplished; he is forever able to hold every buddha in mind, forever beholding every lamp of the world. The bodhisattva's own supreme practice cannot be measured, and every dharma of merit is likewise so; already abiding in the Tathāgata's own unsurpassed practice, he fully knows every buddha's own sovereign power."
The verse's closing turn — "if a person knows this and dedicates accordingly, then he is equal to the practice of those very buddhas" — is unusually direct for a hymn that has spent seventeen Parts describing a bodhisattva mahāsattva in the third person. For four lines, the enormous scope of everything just described becomes an offer made to whoever is reading it.
Part 373 Complete — The Ninth Dedication, Fascicle 31 of 80
This completes the ninth dedication — the mind of non-attachment, non-bondage, and liberation (無著無縛解脫迴向) — begun many Parts ago, and with it, fascicle thirty-one of the Avataṃsaka Sūtra. Fascicle thirty-two opens Part 374 with the tenth and final dedication of "The Ten Dedications" chapter, the last stage before the sūtra turns to the Ten Grounds.