Bodhicitta, and Closing the Three Blessings
The third blessing opens with a vow of almost unbounded scope — a resolve to match empty space itself and ferry every being across without exception — before settling into something more grounded: a plain claim that suffering and happiness both have causes, and an image of mirror and dew explaining why keeping the Dharma to oneself was never really an option.
A Vow Equal to Empty Space
三、言發菩提心者，此明眾生欣心趣大，不可淺發小因。自非廣發弘心，何能得與菩提相會。唯願我身，身同虛空，心齊法界，盡眾生性。我以身業恭敬供養禮拜，迎送來去，運度令盡。又我以口業讚歎說法，皆受我化，言下得道者令盡。又我以意業入定觀察，分身法界，應機而度，無一不盡。我發此願，運運增長猶如虛空，無處不遍，行流無盡徹窮後際，身無疲倦心無厭足。又言菩提者，即是佛果之名。又言心者，即是眾生能求之心。故云發菩提心也。
Third, as for "giving rise to the bodhi-mind": this makes plain that sentient beings, joyfully setting their own hearts upon the Great Vehicle, must not give rise instead to some shallow, lesser cause. Unless one gives rise broadly to this vast and expansive resolve, how could one ever come to meet with bodhi itself? I vow only that my own body might become equal to empty space itself, my own mind equal to the whole of the Dharma-realm, encompassing the entire nature of every sentient being without exception. Through the karma of my own body, I shall reverently make offerings and pay homage, welcoming and escorting beings in their coming and going, ferrying every one of them across without exception. Further, through the karma of my own speech, I shall praise and expound the Dharma, so that all who receive my own transformative teaching, down to the very last one, shall attain the path. Further, through the karma of my own mind, I shall enter meditative absorption and contemplate, dividing my own body throughout the Dharma-realm, responding to the capacity of each being and ferrying them across, without a single one left out. Having given rise to this vow, it shall grow and increase moment by moment, just like empty space, reaching everywhere without exception, its flow of practice inexhaustible, extending through to the very furthest limit of time, my own body never growing weary, my own mind never growing satisfied or complacent. Further, as for "bodhi": this is itself the very name of the fruit of buddhahood. And as for "mind": this is itself the very mind of sentient beings capable of seeking it. Hence it is said, "giving rise to the bodhi-mind."
Shandao's own gloss on bodhicitta refuses to let it remain an abstraction — the vow he supplies is broken down, deliberately, into what each of the three karmas actually does: the body making offerings and escorting beings, the speech teaching until every listener attains the path, the mind entering absorption and dividing itself throughout the Dharma-realm to respond to each being's own particular capacity. What distinguishes this third blessing from the first two is precisely this scope — not devotion owed to specific people, not precepts observed by a single practitioner, but a resolve that "grows and increases moment by moment, just like empty space, reaching everywhere without exception." Shandao's closing definition, that bodhi names the fruit of buddhahood while mind names only the ordinary capacity to seek it, quietly closes the distance between the vow's cosmic scale and the plain fact that anyone, including an imprisoned queen, is capable of giving rise to it.
A Mirror, and Sweet Dew That Must Not Run Dry
四、言深信因果者，即有其二。一明世間苦樂因果，若作苦因即感苦果，若作樂因即感樂果，如似以印印泥印壞文成，不得疑也。言讀誦大乘者，此明經教，喻之如鏡。數讀數尋，開發智慧。若智慧眼開，即能厭苦欣樂涅槃等也。言勸進行者，此明苦法如毒，惡法如刀，流轉三有損害眾生。今既善如明鏡，法如甘露。鏡即照正道以歸真，甘露即注法雨而無竭。欲使含靈受潤，等會法流，為此因緣，故須相勸。言如此三事已下，總結成上行也。
五、從佛告韋提下，至正因已來，明其引聖勵凡。但能決定注心，必往無疑。
上來雖有五句不同，廣明散善顯行緣竟。
Fourth, as for "deep faith in cause and effect": this carries two meanings. First, this makes plain the causes and effects of suffering and happiness within this mundane world — if one creates the cause of suffering, one shall reap the effect of suffering; if one creates the cause of happiness, one shall reap the effect of happiness — just as when a seal is pressed into clay, once the seal is lifted away, the impression remains complete; this should never be doubted. As for "reading and reciting the Great Vehicle": this makes plain that the sūtras and their teaching may be compared to a mirror — reading them again and again, seeking through them again and again, one's own wisdom is thereby opened and developed. Once the eye of wisdom is opened, one becomes able to weary of suffering and to delight in nirvāṇa and the like. As for "encouraging others to advance in practice": this makes plain that the teachings of suffering are like poison, and evil teachings are like a blade, causing beings to circle endlessly through the three realms of existence, harming them all the while. Now, since goodness itself is like a bright mirror, and the Dharma itself is like sweet dew — the mirror illuminates the correct path, leading one back to what is true, and the sweet dew pours down as an inexhaustible rain of Dharma — one wishes that every being possessed of consciousness might receive this moistening, and together partake of this flowing Dharma. It is for this very reason that one must exhort others toward it as well. As for "these three matters" and what follows: this gathers together, in summary, everything expounded above.
Fifth, from "the Buddha told Vaidehī" down through "the correct cause," this makes plain the citing of the sages so as to encourage ordinary beings. One need only resolve firmly and fix one's own mind upon it, and one shall without doubt attain rebirth there.
Though the above has unfolded across five distinct points, this concludes the full explanation of the condition revealing the practice of dispersed goodness.
The mirror-and-dew pairing Shandao offers here does real argumentative work rather than merely decorating the passage: a mirror can only show a practitioner their own path if they keep returning to look into it, which is why "reading them again and again" belongs to deep faith rather than to any earlier blessing — faith here is a practice of repetition, not a settled state reached once and left behind. The image of sweet dew "pouring down as an inexhaustible rain" then supplies the reason the fourth component, encouraging others, belongs inside deep faith at all: dew that fell on only one recipient would not really be dew as this passage means it. Taken together, the three blessings that close here — devotion, precepts, bodhicitta paired with faith — have moved the entire teaching from what a single grieving queen might do for herself toward what she, and every practitioner after her, owes to everyone else as well.
Part 24 Complete
This closes Part 24, and with it "the condition revealing the practice of dispersed goodness" in full — the sixth of Shandao's seven narrative sections. Part 25 turns to the seventh and final section, "the condition showing the contemplative practice" (定善示觀緣): the Buddha's own command to Ānanda and Vaidehī to receive and transmit this teaching, and the transition into the sixteen contemplations themselves — closing Fascicle 2 in its entirety.
Continue to Part 25 — A Command to Transmit, and the Gate of Contemplation Opens →