(30) “ Again, Mahakasyapa, those countless Bodhisattvas in the ten quarters may be demanded by some one of their hands, legs, ears, nose, eyes, brains, heads, blood, flesh, skin, bones, villages, towns, wives, children, male and female slaves, elephants horses, vehicles, gold, silver, beryl, precious shells, agate, coral, amber, pearl, mother of pearl, clothes, beverages, and food; but these ones who make such demands upon the Bodhisattvas are, in many cases, such Bodhisattvas as have realised the Inconceivable Emancipation and manifest themselves as such in order to make their minds firm through their Upayas. And why? Such Bodhisattvas as have realised the Inconceivable Emancipation are possessors of mighty powers, and of set purpose, oppress beings bringing with such calamities. Those who are powerless and inferior can never threaten Bodhisattvas in such a manner; just as an ass can never resist the kick of an elephant. This is called the way of wisdom and the necessary “ means of a Bodhisattva who has realised the Inconceivable Emancipation.”

(1) “By this wisdom shall enlightened disciples be enabled to bring into subjection every inordinate desire! Every species of life, whether hatched in the egg, formed in the womb, evolved from spawn, produced by metamorphosis, with or without form or intelligence, possessing or devoid of natural instinct—from these changeful conditions of being, I command you to seek deliverance, in the transcendental concept of Nirvana. Thus, you shall be delivered from an immeasurable, innumerable, and illimitable world of sentient life; but, in reality, there is no world of sentient life from which to seek deliverance. And why? Because, in the minds of enlightened disciples there have ceased to exist such arbitrary concepts of phenomena as an entity, a being, a living being, or a personality.”

(16) “ Again, Sariputra, a Bodhisattva who has realised the Inconceivable Emancipation cuts out the three great chiliocosms [from the universe] even as does the turner of porcelain, and holding them in the palm of his right hand, he casts them, forth outside the worlds exceeding in number the sands of the river Ganga; but the beings contained therein recognise not and know not the place where they are cast; when he again restores them to their former place there is no consciousness either of going or of coming in those beings, the nature of the worlds remaining as it was.

(4) Let me not despair that the Enlightenment will come to me; for the Blessed One, the speaker of truth, has revealed this truth, that they who by force of striving have gained hard-won supreme Enlightenment have been erstwhile gnats, gadflies, flies, and worms. Now I am a man by birth, able to know good and evil: why shall I not win the Enlightenment by following the rule of the All-knowing? If I am afraid when I think that I must give my hand or foot, it is because in my heedlessness I confound things of great and of small weight. I may be cleft, pierced, burnt, split open many and many a time for countless millions of aeons, and never win the Enlightenment. But this pain that wins me the Enlightenment is of brief term; it is like the pain of cutting out a buried arrow to heal its smart. All physicians restore health by painful courses; then to undo much suffering let us bear a little. But even this fitting course the Great Physician has not enjoined upon us; he heals them that are grievously sick by tender treatment. At first our Lord ordains gifts only of herbs and the like, and then in due course brings men at last to surrender even their own flesh. When there comes to man the spirit that looks upon his flesh as no more than herbs, what hardship is it for him to surrender his flesh and bone? He is not hurt, for he has cast off sin, nor sad, for knowledge is his; for distress comes in the mind from false imaginations, and in the body from sin. The body is made happy by righteous works, the spirit by knowledge; what can vex the compassionate one who remains in embodied life only for the welfare of others? Annulling his former sins, amassing oceans of righteousness, by the power of his Thought of Enlightenment he travels more swiftly than the Disciples. Having thus in the Thought of Enlightenment a chariot that removes all vexation and weariness, travelling from happiness to happiness, who that is wise will despair?

(29) Then Vimalakirti spoke to Mahakasyapa and said: “ O sir, many of the Evil Ones living in the countless asamkhyeya worlds in the ten quarters, are such Bodhisattvas as have realised the Inconceivable Emancipation; they manifest themselves as the Evil Ones in order to preach and convert all beings through the necessary means.

(26) O Sariputra, I have preached in outline the power of the Inconceivable Emancipation of a Bodhisattva; if it is preached in detail, we can never come to an end even when the present kalpa expires.”

(16) Bewildered by many a fancy, entangled in the snare of delusion, addicted to the gratification of lust, they fall into a foul hell.

(3) “Subhuti, the Lord Buddha by his prescience, is perfectly cognisant of all such potential disciples, and for these also there is reserved an immeasurable merit. And why? Because, the minds of these disciples will not revert to such arbitrary concepts of phenomena as an entity, a being, a living being, a personality, qualities or ideas coincident with Law, or existing apart from the idea of Law. And why? Because, assuming the permanency and reality of phenomena, the minds of these disciples would be involved in such distinctive ideas as an entity, a being, a living being, and a personality. Affirming the permanency and reality of qualities or ideas coincident with Law, their minds would inevitably be involved in resolving these same definitions. Postulating the inviolate nature of qualities or ideas which have an existence apart from the Law, there yet remain to be explained these abstruse distinctions—an entity, a being, a living being, and a personality. Therefore, enlightened disciples ought not to affirm the permanency or reality of qualities or ideas coincident with Law, nor postulate as being of an inviolate nature, qualities or ideas having an existence apart from the concept of Law.”