Arousing the Mind Alone
Part 434 left the bodhisattva looking at beings who cannot help themselves. Here is what they conclude — four characters that decide the shape of the rest of the path. Then every wholesome root is assigned to those beings, and the sūtra gives this bodhisattva twenty-one names, each with the reason attached.
Seeking No Companion
The description of beings piles up negations — no rescue, no refuge, no island, no shelter, no guide, no eyes — and the bodhisattva's response adds one more negation, this time about themselves.
佛子！此菩薩摩訶薩復作是念：『此諸眾生受如是苦，孤窮困迫，無救無依，無洲無舍，無導無目，無明覆翳，黑暗纏裹。我今為彼一切眾生，修行福智助道之法，獨一發心，不求伴侶；以是功德，令諸眾生畢竟清淨，乃至獲得如來十力、無礙智慧。』
Child of the Buddha! This bodhisattva mahāsattva further thinks thus: 'These beings undergo such suffering as this — alone and destitute and hard pressed, without rescue and without refuge, without island and without shelter, without a guide and without eyes, covered over by ignorance and wrapped about in darkness. I now, for the sake of all these beings, cultivate merit and wisdom, the dharmas that aid the path — arousing the mind alone, seeking no companion; and by this merit I shall cause all beings to become utterly pure, and on up to obtaining the Tathāgata's ten powers and unobstructed wisdom.'
佛子！此菩薩摩訶薩以如是智慧觀察所修善根，皆為救護一切眾生，利益一切眾生，安樂一切眾生，哀愍一切眾生，成就一切眾生，解脫一切眾生，攝受一切眾生；令一切眾生離諸苦惱，令一切眾生普得清淨，令一切眾生悉皆調伏，令一切眾生入般涅槃。
Child of the Buddha! This bodhisattva mahāsattva, contemplating with such wisdom the wholesome roots they have cultivated, sees that all of them are for rescuing and protecting all beings, for benefiting all beings, for bringing all beings peace and ease, for taking pity on all beings, for ripening all beings, for liberating all beings, and for gathering in all beings; for causing all beings to be free of every suffering and torment, for causing all beings to attain purity universally, for causing all beings to be entirely tamed, and for causing all beings to enter parinirvāṇa.
獨一發心，不求伴侶 — arousing the mind alone, seeking no companion. The clause is easy to read as heroic solitude, and it is not. It sits immediately after a list of everything beings lack, and it answers that list: those who have no rescue and no refuge cannot be asked to share the work of their own rescue. The bodhisattva is not refusing help; they are declining to make their undertaking conditional on anyone joining them.
Read against the second ground's vow in Part 406 — to be of one resolve with every bodhisattva, without enmity or envy — the two are not in tension. That vow concerned how one works alongside others who are also working. This concerns whether one begins at all if nobody else does.
Twenty-One Names
The sūtra now names this bodhisattva, over and over, and each name is followed by the reason it fits. Read straight through, the list is a portrait — and its most striking entries are the ones that describe not capacity but stamina.
「佛子！菩薩摩訶薩住此第五難勝地，名為：念者，不忘諸法故；名為：智者，能善決了故；名為：有趣者，知經意趣，次第連合故；名為：慚愧者，自護、護他故；名為：堅固者，不捨戒行故；名為：覺者，能觀是處、非處故；名為：隨智者，不隨於他故；名為：隨慧者，善知義、非義句差別故；名為：神通者，善修禪定故；名為：方便善巧者，能隨世行故；名為：無厭足者，善集福德故；
"Child of the Buddha! A bodhisattva mahāsattva abiding on this fifth ground, Sudurjayā, the Ground Difficult to Conquer, is called mindful, because they do not forget the dharmas; is called wise, because they are well able to decide and resolve; is called one who has direction, because they know the intent and direction of the scriptures and join them together in due order; is called one who has conscience, because they guard themselves and guard others; is called firm, because they do not abandon the practice of the precepts; is called awake, because they are able to see what is possible and what is not; is called one who follows wisdom, because they do not follow another; is called one who follows discernment, because they know well the difference between phrases that carry meaning and phrases that do not; is called one of spiritual power, because they cultivate meditative concentration well; is called skilled in means, because they are able to act in accord with the world; is called insatiable, because they gather merit well;
名為：不休息者，常求智慧故；名為：不疲倦者，集大慈悲故；名為：為他勤修者，欲令一切眾生入涅槃故；名為：勤求不懈者，求如來力、無畏、不共法故；名為：發意能行者，成就莊嚴佛土故；名為：勤修種種善業者，能具足相好故；名為：常勤修習者，求莊嚴佛身、語、意故；名為：大尊重恭敬法者，於一切菩薩法師處如教而行故；名為：心無障礙者，以大方便常行世間故；名為：日夜遠離餘心者，常樂教化一切眾生故。
is called one who does not rest, because they constantly seek wisdom; is called one who does not weary, because they gather great loving-kindness and compassion; is called one who cultivates diligently for others, because they wish to bring all beings into nirvāṇa; is called one who seeks diligently and never slackens, because they seek the Tathāgata's powers, fearlessnesses, and unshared dharmas; is called one whose intention is able to act, because they accomplish the adorning of buddha-lands; is called one who diligently cultivates every kind of good work, because they are able to be fully endowed with the marks and the excellent features; is called one who cultivates constantly and diligently, because they seek to adorn a buddha's body, speech, and mind; is called one who greatly honors and reveres the Dharma, because in the presence of every bodhisattva Dharma-teacher they act as they are taught; is called one whose mind is without obstruction, because by great skillful means they constantly move within the world; and is called one who day and night stands apart from other thoughts, because they constantly delight in teaching and transforming all beings.
Three names in a row concern not running out: insatiable, one who does not rest, one who does not weary. And the reason given for the third is the one that surprises — not that they are strong, but 集大慈悲故, because they gather great loving-kindness and compassion. Tirelessness is presented here as a consequence of compassion rather than of discipline, which is the reverse of how endurance is usually accounted for.
名為：覺者，能觀是處、非處故 — called awake, because they can see what is possible and what is not. 是處非處 is the first of a buddha's ten powers, the knowledge of what can and cannot be the case, and it is a strikingly plain thing for the word "awake" to be attached to. Being awake, here, means having an accurate sense of what will and will not work.
隨智者，不隨於他故 — one who follows wisdom, because they do not follow another. The credential that has run through the whole chapter since Vimuktacandra used it of the assembly in Part 401 appears here as a name. And it sits three items away from 於一切菩薩法師處如教而行故, acting as taught in the presence of every Dharma-teacher. Not following another and doing exactly as one is taught are, on this ground, the same person.
Part 435 Complete
This continues Sudurjayā, the fifth of the Ten Grounds. Chapter 26 continues in Part 436 with the ten ways this bodhisattva teaches beings — by giving, by kind speech, by beneficial conduct and working alongside; by manifesting a physical body, by expounding the Dharma, by revealing the bodhisattva practice, by displaying a tathāgata's great power, by showing the perils of birth and death, by praising the benefit of a buddha's wisdom, and by great spiritual power — and then with the worldly arts and sciences, which this bodhisattva learns without exception for beings' sake.