Great Wisdom Is the Supreme Compassion

 In ancient India, women and children were the private property of husbands and fathers, and men could give away or sell their wives and children at will. Even the Buddha did not break this rule; He also allowed disciples to give away their wives at will and then leave home to cultivate the Path. In ancient times, women's status was low, which seems quite unreasonable from our present perspective, yet at that time no women resisted; they all willingly endured. Behind the existence of an unreasonable thing there must be a reasonable law of cause and effect unknown to others. Sentient beings cannot see it clearly, but the Buddha knows it. Therefore, at that time the Buddha did not permit women to leave home and cultivate the Path. This was not because the Buddha lacked compassion; it was only that such compassion would shorten the period of the True Dharma by five hundred years, and thus far fewer sentient beings with spiritual faculties (indriya) would be delivered. That would be a loss for Buddhism and a loss for sentient beings. Yet in the end the Buddha had no choice and accepted women leaving home to cultivate the Path. Therefore, whether something is compassionate or not, wholesome or unwholesome—with the wisdom of ordinary sentient beings, it can never be seen clearly, for sentient beings' views are all inverted. Whatever the Buddha does, it is compassion; in every direction—left and right, up and down—it is all compassion. Considering from every angle, considering from different circumstances, proceeding from specific situations, proceeding from the overall interests of Buddhism—it is all compassion. When conditions differ, the results differ, and the choices differ. Therefore one cannot say that the Buddha is compassionate when He does one thing but not compassionate when He does another; whatever the Buddha does is compassion, because of His great wisdom and great compassion. It is the same with me: whether or not I respond to sentient beings, it is all for sentient beings, not for myself. My time, energy, and mental effort all belong to sentient beings and to Buddhism, not to me personally. Therefore, in doing anything, I should proceed from the overall situation and from the overall interests of Buddhism. If one acts for the sake of a portion of people, the interests of the majority will be harmed; then one must not expend mental effort only for a portion of people. The overall cause of Buddhism is forever higher than the interests of a portion of sentient beings. A person with wisdom must make correct trade-offs and choices, maximize benefit, and expend mental effort and energy reasonably. The Sahā world does not consist only of Jambudvīpa; Jambudvīpa is merely one celestial body within one small world among the three thousand great thousand worlds of the Sahā world. The entire Sahā world contains one hundred thousand kotis of celestial bodies, and everywhere there are sentient beings who need to be delivered and saved and drawn out (of suffering). Bodhisattvas belong to all sentient beings of the worlds in the ten directions, not only to the sentient beings of one region. A bodhisattva's mind should be extremely vast, and their vision should encompass the whole world and the entire universe. Therefore, whether or not one comes to this world, it is all for Buddhism and for sentient beings, and it is all compassion.