འཕགས་པ་ནམ་མཁའ་སྙང་པ་ཞས་བྱ་བ་ཐག་པ་ཆན་པའ་མད 29

29

They resemble donkeys, and they explain the Dharma most clearly. Once they have been greatly honored and venerated by the kṣatriyas and their retinues and have received their offerings, they criticize, in front of the householders, the other bhikṣus who diligently practice relinquishment. And the kṣatriyas together with their retinues become angry at the bhikṣus who diligently practice relinquishment, and disparage them.

“If the support and material riches that were destined for the bhikṣus who diligently practice relinquishment are offered to the bhikṣus exerting themselves in recitation, at this point both actions³⁸ become root transgressions. Why? Because the bhikṣu meditators are holy, while those who only recite and advise others are not. The bhikṣu meditators have become vessels for meditative concentration, dhāraṇīs, tolerance, and the grounds. They have become holy beings worthy of receiving offerings; they have become sacred vessels. They illuminate the world and show the way, liberating beings from the realm of karma and afflictions and placing them on the path leading beyond sorrow.

“Son of noble family, since they have no misgivings concerning such actions and fear no consequences, this is the eighth root transgression for beginner bodhisattvas. When beginner bodhisattvas commit these root transgressions, they forfeit all previously generated roots of virtue. They go to the lower realms, experience their transgression materially, and are deprived of all the happiness of gods and humans. They are bodhisattvas who have deceived themselves.

“Son of noble family, for the benefit of beginner bodhisattvas, the bodhisattva Ākāśagarbha is born and appears in the places where such bodhisattvas dwell. To some he teaches in the form of a monastic with the appropriate attire and conduct, displaying to others a variety of forms, from that of a brahmin with the proper attire and conduct to the semblance and conduct of an animal. For an extensive explanation of this, one should read the Sūtra on the Meditative ‌Concentration of valiant progress (Śūraṃgama­samādhi­sūtra).³⁹

“Ākāśagarbha teaches the Dharma in various places according to the specificities of various beings.