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Then Manjusri asked Vimalakirti: “ How should a Bodhisattva regard all beings?” Vimalakirti replied and said: “ A Bodhisattva should regard all beings as a magician regards his magical creations created by himself; he should regard them as a wise man regards the moon in water, as his own reflections in a mirror, and again as a mirage in the summer season, as the echo of a calling voice, as clouds in the sky, as foams in the stream, as bubbles on the surface of water, as the solidity of the plantain tree, as the durability of lightning, as a fifth Element, as a sixth Skandha, as a seventh Consciousness, as a thirteenth Ayatana, as a nineteenth Dhatu. And again a Bodhisattva should regard all beings as forms in the Formless World (arupa-dhatu), as a sprout of burnt seed, as egoism held by the Srota-apanna sages, as a rebirth of the Anagamin sages, as the three passions entertained by Arhat sages, as a feeling of greed and anger and idea of violating rules in the mind of a Bodhisattva after attaining to the state of Acquiescence, as residual impressions in a Buddha, as colours seen by the blind, as the breathings of one who has entered the meditation of complete annihilation, as the traces of birds in the sky, as the conception of a barren Woman, as passions felt by magically created person, as dream visions after awaking, as the rebirth of one who has entered Nirvana, as smokeless fire.”

“Subhuti, five hundred incarnations ago, I recollect that as a recluse practising the ordinances of the Kshanti-Paramita, even then I had no such...

The Lord Buddha replied, saying: “A good disciple, whether man or woman, ought thus to habituate his mind: ‘I must become oblivious to every idea of...

“Subhuti, the Lord Buddha by his prescience, is perfectly cognisant of all such potential disciples, and for these also there is reserved an...