How Does a Bodhisattva Dwell Playfully in the Human Realm?

Bodhisattvas may sometimes comply with sentient beings and engage in theatrical displays, yet their actual mental activities of the mental faculty remain utterly pure, even if the aspect they show to sentient beings may appear impure. Why is this so? To guide and embrace sentient beings, to liberate them, Bodhisattvas must employ certain skillful means to subdue them. When the purpose is pure and the outcome is virtuous, the means employed are beyond reproach. However, if a Bodhisattva's mental faculty is not yet purified and still harbors afflictions, they cannot resort to extreme measures, as such actions would resonate with their afflicted mental faculty and plant karmic seeds. A Bodhisattva on the third stage or above has already eradicated the manifest activity of afflictions within their mental faculty; their mind-ground no longer resonates with afflictions, and thus they may employ certain skillful means—such as actions seemingly involving killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, false speech, and alcohol consumption—appearing to engage in the same behaviors as ordinary people, yet in reality, doing so to subdue the unenlightened and guide them back to the right path.

For a Bodhisattva to roam freely in the human realm, they must possess the capability to do so; their mental activities must transcend the human realm to avoid being bound by it. Otherwise, they will inevitably sink deep into the mire of worldly existence, unable to extricate themselves. If one cannot even liberate oneself, how can one speak of liberating others?

Roaming freely in the human realm does not equate to indulging in worldly pleasures. Those who indulge in worldly pleasures are certainly incapable of roaming freely within it. Only by being neither bound by nor indulging in the world does one possess the qualification and ability to roam freely within it. Otherwise, it cannot be called roaming freely; it should instead be called imprisonment.