འཕགས་པ་དཀན་མཆག་སྤྲན་ཅས་བྱ་བ་ཐག་པ་ཆན་པའ་མད 6.21

6.21

rather than through an attitude of being fond or hostile.

“Noble son, this is how it is. As an analogy, think of a merchant or householder who has six dearly cherished, beloved, and adored children. The merchant or householder loves all of them equally, and he treats them all equally. All the children are infants who crawl around, unaware and unskilled. Now imagine that this merchant’s or householder’s house catches fire while the children are all in different places. Noble son, what do you think? Would that merchant or householder be thinking, ‘Let me get such-and-such child out first, and then the other children’?”

“No, Blessed One, he would not,” answered the bodhisattva Sarva­nīvaraṇa­viṣkam­bhin. “And why would he not think like this? Because, Blessed One, that merchant or householder has equal concern for all the children. He would, therefore, deliver them from the house whenever he encountered them.”

“Similarly, noble son,” continued the Blessed One, “all infantile sentient beings are like the bodhisattvas’ own children, not noble beings. Bodhisattvas see these infantile, dull, and unskilled beings that are present in each of the six realms. In accordance with these beings’ level of maturation, bodhisattvas will deliver them from the burning house of cyclic existence. Having saved them from the fire, they will gently establish them within the field of the transcendence of suffering. Noble son, bodhisattvas who possess ten such qualities have equal concern for all sentient beings.

“Noble son, bodhisattvas endowed with ten qualities have skill in worshiping and venerating the thus-gone ones. What are those ten? They are as follows. Bodhisattvas worship and venerate the thus-gone ones by means of worshiping the Dharma, not through material worship. They worship with persistence, and act for the welfare and happiness of sentient beings.