Sparing of Nothing
The compassion that arose at the end of Part 408 now issues in something concrete. The sūtra lists what the bodhisattva on the first ground is prepared to give away, and the list runs from grain in a storehouse through household and family to the marrow of the bones. What follows is quieter but just as deliberate — a chain in which each quality is produced by the one before it, ending in the ten dharmas that purify the grounds.
Whatever They Possess
The list is ordered, and the order is the argument. It begins with what a person owns, moves to what a person has authority over, then to the people of a household, and only then to the body — descending steadily from the most detachable thing toward the least.
「佛子！菩薩摩訶薩隨順如是大悲、大慈，以深重心住初地時，於一切物無所吝惜，求佛大智，修行大捨，凡是所有一切能施。所謂：財穀、倉庫、金銀、摩尼、真珠、瑠璃、珂貝、璧玉、珊瑚等物，珍寶、瓔珞、嚴身之具，象馬、車乘、奴婢、人民、城邑、聚落、園林、臺觀、妻妾、男女、內外眷屬及餘所有珍玩之具，頭目、手足、血肉、骨髓、一切身分皆無所惜，為求諸佛廣大智慧。是名：菩薩住於初地大捨成就。
"Child of the Buddha! A bodhisattva mahāsattva who accords with such great compassion and great loving-kindness as these, when abiding on the first ground with a mind deep and weighty, is sparing of nothing whatsoever. Seeking the Buddha's great wisdom, they cultivate great giving, and whatever they possess they are able to give. That is to say: wealth and grain, storehouses and granaries, gold and silver, maṇi, pearl, lapis lazuli, conch shell, jade, coral, and the like; precious treasures, necklaces, and every ornament for adorning the body; elephants and horses, carriages and conveyances, servants and subjects, cities and towns, villages, gardens and groves, terraces and pavilions, wives and consorts, sons and daughters, retinue within and without, and whatever else of precious and delightful things they have; head and eyes, hands and feet, blood and flesh, bone and marrow — every part of the body — none of it do they begrudge, all for the sake of seeking the vast wisdom of the buddhas. This is called a bodhisattva's accomplishment of great giving while abiding on the first ground.
The phrase governing the whole list is 於一切物無所吝惜 — sparing of nothing, begrudging nothing. It describes a disposition rather than a transaction, which matters because much of what the list names could not simply be handed over. The point is not that a bodhisattva disposes of their household but that nothing in it is held back in the mind as not-to-be-given.
Note the reason attached at both ends — seeking the Buddha's great wisdom, seeking the vast wisdom of the buddhas. The giving is not framed here as relief of others' need, though compassion is what produced it. It is framed as the price of a particular kind of knowing, as though wisdom of that scale simply cannot be held by someone still keeping something back.
One Quality Draws the Next
This passage is built as a chain, and each link is stated twice — once as an attainment, then again as the ground of what follows. Tirelessness makes study possible; study makes judgment possible; judgment becomes worldly wisdom; and worldly wisdom, unexpectedly, produces a sense of shame.
「佛子！菩薩以此慈、悲、大施心，為欲救護一切眾生，轉更推求世、出世間諸利益事無疲厭故，即得成就無疲厭心。得無疲厭心已，於一切經論心無怯弱；無怯弱故，即得成就一切經論智。獲是智已，善能籌量應作、不應作，於上、中、下一切眾生，隨應、隨力、隨其所習，如是而行，是故菩薩得成世智。成世智已，知時知量，以慚愧莊嚴勤修自利、利他之道，是故成就慚愧莊嚴，於此行中勤修出離，不退不轉，成堅固力。得堅固力已，勤供諸佛，於佛教法能如說行。
"Child of the Buddha! With this mind of loving-kindness, compassion, and great giving, wishing to rescue and protect all sentient beings, the bodhisattva turns to seek out ever further every matter of benefit, worldly and supramundane alike, and does so without weariness — and so they accomplish a mind free of weariness. Having attained a mind free of weariness, their mind knows no timidity before any of the sūtras and treatises; and because they are without timidity, they accomplish the wisdom of all the sūtras and treatises. Having gained this wisdom, they are well able to weigh what should be done and what should not, and toward beings of every kind — superior, middling, and inferior — they act according to what suits each, according to their strength, and according to what they are accustomed to; and so the bodhisattva comes to accomplish worldly wisdom. Having accomplished worldly wisdom, they know the right time and the right measure, and adorned with conscience they diligently cultivate the path that benefits both themselves and others; and so they accomplish the adornment of conscience. Within this practice they diligently cultivate deliverance, neither retreating nor turning back, and so accomplish firm strength. Having attained firm strength, they diligently make offerings to the buddhas, and are able to practice the Buddha's teaching Dharma just as it is taught.
「佛子！菩薩如是成就十種淨諸地法，所謂：信、悲、慈、捨、無有疲厭、知諸經論、善解世法、慚愧、堅固力、供養諸佛依教修行。
"Child of the Buddha! In this way the bodhisattva accomplishes ten kinds of dharma that purify the grounds — namely: faith, compassion, loving-kindness, giving, freedom from weariness, knowledge of the sūtras and treatises, skilled understanding of worldly dharmas, conscience, firm strength, and making offerings to the buddhas while practicing in reliance on their teaching.
世智, worldly wisdom, sits in the middle of this chain and in the middle of the final list of ten, and it is not treated as a lesser thing. What produces it here is the capacity to weigh what should and should not be done, and to meet people according to their strength and their habits. That is practical judgment about particular persons — the least abstract item in the whole First Ground, and the sūtra makes the adornment of conscience follow from it rather than precede it.
The order of that sequence rewards attention. Knowing the right time and the right measure (知時知量) comes immediately after worldly wisdom, and conscience immediately after that. Shame, in this account, is not a feeling one starts with and works from. It is what appears once a person can actually see the effect of their actions on others clearly enough to judge them.
Part 409 Complete
This continues the First Ground of the Ten Grounds chapter. Chapter 26 continues in Part 410 as the bodhisattva, by the power of the great vows, comes to see buddhas beyond counting and to serve them with every requisite of life — after which the sūtra names giving as the pāramitā that predominates on this ground, and likens the whole process to a goldsmith refining gold, passing it through the fire again and again until it grows bright and pliant and fit for whatever use is wanted.