A Vow That Never Ends
Rest-and-Release measures the end of her own vow against two impossible conditions — every world purified, every being's affliction pulled out — names her liberation Free from Sorrow, Peaceful Banner, and then describes the great bodhisattvas through ten similes before admitting she cannot fully say what their own practice is.
Free from Sorrow, Peaceful Banner
Rest-and-Release states her own vow's true measure — not finished until every world is adorned and every being's affliction is uprooted — and when Good-Wealth asks the liberation's name, she answers directly before returning to the same confession of limitation heard from every teacher before her.
「善男子！菩薩行普入一切法皆證得故，普入一切剎悉嚴淨故。是故，善男子！嚴淨一切世界盡，我願乃盡；拔一切眾生煩惱習氣盡，我願乃滿。」善財童子言：「聖者！此解脫名為何等？」答言：「善男子！此解脫名：離憂安隱幢。善男子！我唯知此一解脫門。
"Good son, a bodhisattva's own practice universally enters every dharma, because it is entirely realized; it universally enters every land, because it is entirely adorned and purified. For this reason, good son, only when the adornment and purification of every world is exhausted will my own vow be exhausted; only when the pulling out of every being's own habitual afflictive tendencies is exhausted will my own vow be fulfilled." Good-Wealth said: "Noble one, what is this liberation called?" She replied: "Good son, this liberation is called: Free from Sorrow, Peaceful Banner. Good son, I know only this single liberation-gate.
嚴淨一切世界盡，我願乃盡 — only when the adornment and purification of every world is exhausted will my own vow be exhausted. Rest-and-Release does not describe her vow as large; she describes it as tied to a condition that never actually arrives, which amounts to the same claim made a different way — a vow with no finish line is, in practice, a vow without end.
Ten Similes for the Great Bodhisattvas
Turning from her own liberation to the bodhisattvas at large, Rest-and-Release reaches for ten everyday images — ocean, mountain, medicine, sun, earth, wind, lamp, cloud, moon, and the lord of the gods himself — before admitting that even these are not enough to describe what such beings actually do.
如諸菩薩摩訶薩，其心如海，悉能容受一切佛法；如須彌山，志意堅固，不可動搖；如善見藥，能除眾生煩惱重病；如明淨日，能破眾生無明闇障；猶如大地，能作一切眾生依處；猶如好風，能作一切眾生義利；猶如明燈，能為眾生生智慧光；猶如大雲，能為眾生雨寂滅法；猶如淨月，能為眾生放福德光；猶如帝釋，悉能守護一切眾生。而我云何能知能說彼功德行？
Just as the great bodhisattva-mahāsattvas — their minds like the ocean, entirely able to hold and receive every buddha's own dharma; like Mount Sumeru, their resolve firm and solid, unable to be shaken; like medicine that is good merely to see, able to remove the grave sickness of every being's affliction; like the bright, pure sun, able to break through the dark obstruction of every being's ignorance; just like the great earth, able to become a support for every being; just like a good wind, able to bring benefit and welfare to every being; just like a bright lamp, able to give rise to the light of wisdom for every being; just like a great cloud, able to rain down the dharma of cessation for every being; just like the pure moon, able to emit the light of merit for every being; just like Śakra, entirely able to guard and protect every being — but how could I possibly know or describe their own meritorious practice?
如善見藥 — like medicine that is good merely to see. Set among similes drawn from sun, earth, and cloud, this one alone describes a cure that works through sight rather than through any dose taken or applied — the same kind of healing this very grove has already shown, back when merely seeing Rest-and-Release herself removed every sickness in Part 947.
Part 953 Complete
This continues chapter thirty-nine, 入法界品, in fascicle sixty-four. Part 954 turns to Rest-and-Release naming Good-Wealth's eighth teacher, a sage dwelling in a southern land, and Good-Wealth's own tearful reflection as he takes his leave of her.