(26) Buddha spoke to Ananda: “Nay, thou shouldst not be discouraged. And why? Among Sravakas I speak of thee as one who has learned much, but not among Bodhisattvas. Stay a while, O Ananda, as intelligent ones are not to measure Bodhisattvas. Even though all the oceans could be measured, yet meditation, wisdom, memory, eloquence, and all the virtues of Bodhisattvas could never be measured. O Ananda, ye [Sravakas] ought to leave alone the deeds of Bodhisattvas. The supernatural power which this Vimalakirti manifested for a moment could not be manifested by all the Sravakas and Pratyeka-Buddhas even with their utmost effort counting through hundreds of thousands of Kalpas.”

(17) The incarnate Bodhisattva said: “Measure not the infinite virtue and wisdom of Tathagata by the finite virtue and wisdom of the Sravaka; though the four great oceans might become dry, yet this bowl of food would never be exhausted. All men [in all the W’orlds] may eat of it even as much as a quantity equal to Mount Sumeru, and for a period lasting a Kalpa, yet it could never be exhausted. And why ? The food spared by one who is infinitely endowed with the virtues of discipline, meditation, wisdom, liberation, and knowledge of liberation, could never be exhausted.”