The Vow That Cannot Be Exhausted
The last two of the ten great vows are the most extravagant — a body whose mere sight settles others in the Dharma, and awakening accomplished in every world without ever leaving the space of a single hair's tip. Then the sūtra does something unexpected. Having listed ten vows, it says these are only a gateway, and sets out ten conditions under which the vow would come to an end — each of which is a thing that cannot end.
Nothing Spent in Vain
The ninth vow concerns efficacy — that nothing the bodhisattva does with body, speech, or mind should be wasted. What follows is a series of thresholds set deliberately low: merely seeing, merely hearing, faith that has only just arisen. The two similes at the end are both of things that give without being asked.
又發大願：『願乘不退輪行菩薩行，身、語、意業悉不唐捐，若暫見者則必定佛法，暫聞音聲則得實智慧，纔生淨信則永斷煩惱，得如大藥王樹身，得如如意寶身，修行一切菩薩行；廣大如法界，究竟如虛空，盡未來際一切劫數無有休息。』
And they make a further great vow: 'May I ride the irreversible wheel in carrying out the bodhisattva practice, so that my deeds of body, speech, and mind are none of them spent in vain — that whoever so much as sees me should become settled in the Buddha's Dharma, that whoever so much as hears my voice should attain true wisdom, that whoever has only just given rise to pure faith should cut off the afflictions forever; may I attain a body like the great king of medicine trees, may I attain a body like the wish-fulfilling jewel, and may I cultivate every bodhisattva practice; vast as the dharma-realm, ultimate as empty space, throughout all the kalpas to the very end of the future, without ever ceasing.'
又發大願：『願於一切世界成阿耨多羅三藐三菩提不離一毛端處，於一切毛端處皆悉示現初生、出家、詣道場、成正覺、轉法輪、入涅槃，得佛境界大智慧力，於念念中隨一切眾生心示現成佛令得寂滅，以一三菩提知一切法界即涅槃相，以一音說法令一切眾生心皆歡喜，示入大涅槃而不斷菩薩行，示大智慧地安立一切法，以法智通、神足通、幻通自在變化充滿一切法界；廣大如法界，究竟如虛空，盡未來際一切劫數無有休息。』
And they make a further great vow: 'May I, in every world, accomplish unsurpassed, perfect awakening without departing from the space of a single hair's tip; may I manifest at every hair's tip alike the first birth, the leaving of the household life, the going to the site of awakening, the accomplishment of perfect awakening, the turning of the Dharma-wheel, and the entry into nirvāṇa; may I attain the great power of wisdom that is a buddha's own domain, and in thought after thought manifest the accomplishment of buddhahood in accordance with the mind of every being, causing them to attain quiescence; by a single awakening may I know that the whole dharma-realm is itself the mark of nirvāṇa; by a single utterance of the Dharma may I cause the minds of all beings to rejoice; may I display the entry into great nirvāṇa and yet not sever the bodhisattva practice; may I display the ground of great wisdom and establish all dharmas upon it; and by the penetration of Dharma-wisdom, the penetration of spiritual motion, and the penetration of illusion, may I fill the entire dharma-realm with sovereign transformations; vast as the dharma-realm, ultimate as empty space, throughout all the kalpas to the very end of the future, without ever ceasing.'
The two similes of the ninth vow are chosen for the same property. A medicine tree heals whoever comes near it and a wish-granting jewel gives whatever is asked, and neither of them deliberates about the recipient. The vow is not for greater influence but for a kind of usefulness that operates without the bodhisattva having to decide anything — which is precisely what would make no deed of body, speech, or mind ever wasted.
"Without departing from the space of a single hair's tip" (不離一毛端處) is the tenth vow's governing condition, and the rest of it unfolds inside that constraint. A buddha's entire career — birth, renunciation, awakening, teaching, nirvāṇa — is to be displayed in a space too small to stand in, and in every such space at once. The sūtra is not describing a smaller version of these events. It is denying that they were ever the size we take them to be.
Note the clause that follows the entry into great nirvāṇa — 示入大涅槃而不斷菩薩行, displaying that entry and yet not severing the bodhisattva practice. Nirvāṇa is here something a bodhisattva can show without it being the end of anything.
Ten Clauses of Exhaustion
Having given ten vows, the sūtra immediately says they are a gateway, opening onto a million asaṃkhyeyas more. Then it explains how such a vow is completed — not by fulfilling it, but by tying it to ten things and observing that none of them can run out.
「佛子！菩薩住歡喜地，發如是大誓願、如是大勇猛、如是大作用，以此十願門為首，滿足百萬阿僧祇大願。佛子！此大願以十盡句而得成就。何等為十？所謂：眾生界盡、世界盡、虛空界盡、法界盡、涅槃界盡、佛出現界盡、如來智界盡、心所緣界盡、佛智所入境界界盡、世間轉法轉智轉界盡。『若眾生界盡，我願乃盡；若世界乃至世間轉法轉智轉界盡，我願乃盡。而眾生界不可盡，乃至世間轉法轉智轉界不可盡故，我此大願善根無有窮盡。』
"Child of the Buddha! A bodhisattva abiding on the Ground of Joy makes such great vows, such great valor, and such great effect as these; and taking these ten gateways of vowing as their head, they fulfill a million asaṃkhyeyas of great vows. Child of the Buddha! These great vows are brought to accomplishment by means of ten clauses of exhaustion. What are the ten? Namely: the exhausting of the realm of sentient beings, the exhausting of the world, the exhausting of the realm of space, the exhausting of the dharma-realm, the exhausting of the realm of nirvāṇa, the exhausting of the realm in which buddhas appear, the exhausting of the realm of a tathāgata's wisdom, the exhausting of the realm of what the mind takes as its object, the exhausting of the realm that is the domain into which a buddha's wisdom enters, and the exhausting of the realm of the world's turning, the Dharma's turning, and wisdom's turning. 'Were the realm of sentient beings exhausted, then my vow would be exhausted; were the world, and so on down to the realm of the world's turning, the Dharma's turning, and wisdom's turning, exhausted, then my vow would be exhausted. But because the realm of sentient beings cannot be exhausted, and so on down to the realm of the world's turning, the Dharma's turning, and wisdom's turning cannot be exhausted, therefore the wholesome roots of this great vow of mine have no end at all.'
The device is precise. A vow that simply declared itself endless would be a boast. Instead the bodhisattva states ten conditions under which the vow would properly conclude, accepts every one of them, and then observes that not one can be met. The endlessness is not asserted; it is inherited from what the vow was attached to.
The ten conditions are also carefully graded. The first few are the obvious ones — beings, worlds, space. But the list keeps going into territory where exhaustion becomes harder even to state: the realm of nirvāṇa, a tathāgata's wisdom, the domain a buddha's wisdom enters. By binding the vow to these as well, the bodhisattva makes its ending depend on things whose ending is not merely unlikely but unintelligible.
Part 407 Complete
This continues the First Ground of the Ten Grounds chapter. Chapter 26 continues in Part 408 with what having made such vows produces — ten kinds of mind, from a mind of benefit and a mind made pliant through to a mind unmoving and unclouded — followed by an account of what faith actually does once it becomes functional, and then the bodhisattva's reflection on how far the ordinary mind, tangled in wrong views and craving, stands from the Dharma's depth and quiet.