“Thus do great enlightening beings compassionately aid and comfort all sentient beings, causing them all to be purified, to give up envy and jealousy, to experience the most wonderful bliss, to be endowed with great charisma, to develop great resolute faith, to forever abandon anger and other blinding pollutants, so their hearts are pure, straightforward, and gentle, without deception or deviousness, confusion or folly, so they carry out emancipating practices, consolidating an incorruptible mind of impartiality, never regressing, their power of pure conduct fully developed, without affliction or loss. They practice dedication skillfully, always cultivating right practices, civilizing sentient beings, destroying all bad actions, cultivating the roots of goodness of all austerities. They also induce sentient beings to cultivate themselves, accepting suffering for the sake of all conscious creatures. Observing roots of goodness with the eye of great knowledge, knowing they all have knowledge and wisdom as their essence, they expediently dedicate them to all sentient beings. This is to cause all sentient beings to be able to abide in the realm of all pure virtues; to cause all sentient beings to be able to embody all roots of goodness, to know the natures and meanings of virtues; to cause all sentient beings to purify all roots of goodness; to cause all sentient beings to plant good qualities in fields of blessings, and have no regrets in their hearts; to cause all sentient beings to be able to embrace all living beings and cause everyone to head for universal knowledge; to cause all sentient beings to take in all roots of goodness, all in accord with impartial dedication.
“Also, they dedicate these roots of goodness in this way: ‘May all sentient beings attain ultimate peace; may all sentient beings attain ultimate understanding; may all sentient beings ultimately live in pure ways; may all sentient beings attain unhindered insight; may all sentient beings tune their minds well; may all sentient beings be fully endowed with the ten powers and tame living beings.’
“When great enlightening beings practice dedication in this way, they do not become attached to actions, to consequences, to the body, to objects, to lands, to places, to sentient beings, to the nonexistence of sentient beings, to all things, or to the nonexistence of all things. When great enlightening beings make dedication in this way, they distribute these roots of goodness throughout the world, that all sentient beings may fully develop buddha-knowledge, attain pure minds with clear, comprehensive wisdom, their inner minds silent and serene, unmoved by external objects, as they extend and develop the family of Buddhas of past, present, and future.
“When great enlightening beings cultivate and practice such dedications they transcend all, so none can surpass them; all the words of praise in the world would be insufficient to describe them. They cultivate all the practices of enlightening beings and are able to go to all buddha-lands and see all the Buddhas without hindrance. Also they can see the courses of action of the enlightening beings of all worlds. With expert skill in means they analyze the most profound statements and meanings of all the teachings; attaining total mental command, they endlessly expound the wondrous teaching. For the sake of sentient beings, from moment to moment they appear, like reflections, in untold worlds, attending the Buddhas; in every instant they adorn untold worlds, causing all to be completely adorned and purified throughout. They cultivate the knowledge to adorn buddha-lands tirelessly. Moment to moment they cause untold hundreds of thousands of billions of sentient beings to attain purity and complete impartiality. In those buddha-lands they diligently practice all ways of transcendence, save sentient beings, accomplish pure action, and attain unobstructed ears, hearing, absorbing, and retaining the teachings of each Buddha in untold worlds, energetically practicing them without even a thought of giving up. They abide in the spiritual powers of enlightening beings in which there is no acquisition, no dependence, no fabrication, and no attachment; in a single instant, in the time of a fingersnap, they can project themselves to untold buddha-worlds. They have the same insight as all enlightening beings.
“When great enlightening beings cultivate the practice of enlightening beings in this way, they can fully develop infinite pure virtues, which could never be exhaustively recounted or extolled, and accomplish unexcelled enlightenment, realizing the equality and purity of all buddha-fields, equality and purity of all sentient beings, equality and purity of all bodies, equality and purity of all faculties, equality and purity of all fruits of action, equality and purity of all congregations and sites of enlightenment, equality and purity of all completely fulfilled practices, equality and purity of all knowledge of methods of the teaching, equality and purity of the vows and dedications of all Buddhas, and equality and purity of the realms of spiritual powers of all Buddhas.
“When great enlightening beings practice dedication in this way, they attain the complete adornment of infinite virtues of gladdening teachings of which all qualities are pure. In this dedication, sentient beings are not at variance with all lands, lands are not at variance with all sentient beings; lands and sentient beings are not at variance with actions, actions are not at variance with lands and beings; thought is not at variance with mind, mind is not at variance with thought; thought and mind are not at variance with objects, objects are not at variance with thought and mind; actions are not at variance with consequences, consequences are not at variance with actions; practice is not at variance with the course of practice, the course of practice is not at variance with practice; the nature of things is not at variance with their characteristics, the characteristics of things are not at variance with their nature; the birth of things is not at variance with their nature, the nature of things is not at variance with their birth; the equality of lands is not at variance with the equality of living beings, the equality of living beings is not at variance with the equality of lands; the equality of all living beings is not at variance with the equality of all things; the equality of all things is not at variance with the equality of all living beings; the equality of the realm of dispassion is not at variance with the equality of stability of all living beings, the equality of stability of all living beings is not at variance with the equality of the realm of dispassion; the past is not at variance with the future, the future is not at variance with the past; the past and future are not at variance with the present, the present is not at variance with the past and future; the equality of worlds is not at variance with the equality of Buddhas, the equality of Buddhas is not at variance with the equality of worlds; the actions of enlightening beings are not at variance with universal knowledge, universal knowledge is not at variance with the actions of enlightening beings.
“When great enlightening beings dedicate in this way, they realize the equality of actions, the equality of consequences, the equality of bodies, the equality of expedients, the equality of vows, the equality of all sentient beings, the equality of all lands, the equality of all practices, the equality of all knowledge, the equality of the Buddhas of all times; they get to serve all Buddhas, attend and provide for all enlightening beings, and plant all roots of goodness; they are able to fulfill all great vows, teach and transform all sentient beings, and know all actions comprehensively; they get to serve and provide for all good teachers, and enter all enlightenment sites with pure congregations; they manage to comprehend and master all true teachings, and fully develop all pure qualities.
“This is the great enlightening beings’ seventh dedication, dedication equally adapting to all sentient beings, dedication in accord with all sentient beings. When great enlightening beings accomplish this dedication, then they can crush all demons; pulling out the thorns of craving, they attain the bliss of emancipation. Abiding in nonduality, they have great mystic powers; they rescue sentient beings and protect them, being monarchs of virtue. Their power of psychic travel is unhindered, and they go to all lands. They enter the realm of extinction, yet may assume any form. They accomplish the deeds of enlightening beings, and their minds attain autonomy in all practices and vows. They analyze and comprehend all things. They are able t
o be born in all buddha-fields. They attain unobstructed ears and can hear all sounds and voices in all lands. They attain the pure eye of wisdom and always see all Buddhas. In all realms they develop roots of goodness, their minds without pride or obsequiousness. They attain nonacquisitiveness in regard to all things. Great enlightening beings dedicate all roots of goodness equally in accord with all sentient beings.”
Then the enlightening being Diamond Banner, spiritually empowered by the Buddha, looked over the ten directions and said in verse,
The virtues of what enlightening beings do
Are subtle, great, and most profound;
Their practice of even one moment
They can dedicate without bounds.
Enlightening beings’ accoutrements,
Various, abundant, in limitless numbers—
Prize elephants and horses, drawing carts,
Clothing, rare goods, all especially fine,
Or their heads, eyes, hands, and feet,
Or their bodies, flesh, bones, and marrow,
They give to all in infinite worlds,
Filling the ten directions.
The virtues they’ve cultivated for countless eons
They dedicate, all,
Wishing to rescue sentient beings,
Never retreating from this determination.
Enlightening beings, to serve the living,
Always practice supreme dedication,
Causing all worlds to attain peace and happiness
That everyone may attain the highest fruit.
Enlightening beings universally make impartial vows,
And whatever pure works they have accumulated
They dedicate to all living beings,
Never giving up this great commitment.
Enlightening beings’ will power is unlimited and dauntless,
The Flower Ornament Scripture Page 81