Part Four · The Ten Dedications · Where the Good Goes

The more intensively one practices, the thicker the accumulation; and the thicker the accumulation, the harder one question presses: where is all this good to be put?

Roots of good have a natural destination—booked under one's own name, settling into a fund of merit awaiting collection. But the aim of the bodhisattva path was fixed on the opening page: non-abiding. Shall one who declines even nirvāṇa let his roots of good settle into a private ledger? The last stretch of the three worthy ranks, the Ten Dedications, performs exactly this operation: the accumulated good is turned about—not kept for oneself, but consigned to three places: beings, awakening, the real.

Part Four is a single chapter, with three things to do: see how the word "dedication" transfers the good off the private ledger; see how the three destinations—beings below, awakening above, suchness in the depths—are three reaches of a single lamp; and see why, once the good is dedicated entire and no self-fruit retained, the bodhisattva's practice is left with no road of retreat at all—practice-non-regress stands exactly here.

The worthies' closing act. Learn to hand the good over.