Not One Word Altered
Shandao closes with the reason he could not keep these visions to himself, a dedication of the entire work's merit to all beings, and a final declaration: this meaning is now settled, confirmed, and closed — not a single phrase, not a single character, may be added to or subtracted from it.
Why These Signs Could Not Be Kept Private
上來所有靈相者，本心為物，不為己身，既蒙此相，不敢隱藏，謹以申呈義後，被聞於末代，願使含靈聞之生信，有識覩者西歸。
As for every one of these numinous signs recorded above: my own original intent, from the start, was for the sake of all beings, not for my own person alone. Having received these signs, I dare not conceal them, and so I have respectfully set them forth here, appended after this commentary's own explanation, that they might be heard by the ages yet to come — wishing that all sentient beings who hear of them might give rise to faith, and that all who possess awareness, upon beholding them, might turn toward the west.
Shandao's own explanation for recording these deeply personal visions is the same principle that has governed this entire commentary since its first fascicle: nothing here is undertaken for his own sake. The visions were sought not as private spiritual experience, but as confirmation for a text meant to serve every reader across "the ages yet to come" — and having received that confirmation, withholding it would itself have been a kind of withholding from those future readers this whole work was written for.
A Dedication, and a Final Injunction
以此功德迴施眾生，悉發菩提心，慈心相向，佛眼相看，菩提眷屬作真善知識，同歸淨國，共成佛道。此義已請證定竟，一句一字不可加減，欲寫者一如經法。應知。
With the merit of this work, I dedicate it and bestow it upon all sentient beings, that every one of them might give rise to the aspiration for awakening, that they might turn toward one another with a compassionate mind, and regard one another with the very eye of the Buddha; that these companions on the path to awakening might become true and good friends to one another, together return to this pure land, and together accomplish the way of buddhahood.
This meaning has already been requested and confirmed as settled; not a single phrase, not a single character, may be added to or subtracted from it. Whoever wishes to copy it should do so exactly as this text of the Dharma itself reads. One should know this.
Shandao's final sentence — that not a single phrase or character of this commentary may be added or subtracted, and that any copy of it should match "this text of the Dharma itself" — places this work, in his own final estimation, on the same footing as scripture. It is the natural conclusion of everything this postscript has built toward: a vow made before undertaking the work, visions granted in confirmation, and now a closing declaration that what has resulted is no longer merely one monk's own reading of the Contemplation Sūtra, but a settled and fixed account of it, not to be altered by anyone who transmits it afterward.
The Commentary Complete
This closes Part 111, and with it Shandao's Commentary on the Contemplation Sūtra in its entirety — four fascicles, one hundred eleven parts, from the opening verse of Fascicle 1 through the thirteen contemplations of Fascicle 3, the three blessings and nine grades of Fascicle 4, and now Shandao's own vow, visions, and closing dedication. Composed in the seventh century, this commentary would go on to shape how an entire tradition of Pure Land Buddhism, from Shandao's own contemporaries through Hōnen and Shinran in Japan centuries later, understood what the Contemplation Sūtra actually teaches — and its final sentence here, urging beings toward "single-minded and exclusive" recitation of Amitābha's name, remains among the most consequential single lines in the history of East Asian Buddhism.
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