འཕགས་པ་དྲ་མ་མད་པར་གྲགས་པས་བསྟན་པ་ཞས་བྱ་བ་ཐག་པ་ཆན་པའ་མད 50

50

Mañjuśrī: Where should the sixty-two convictions be sought?

Vimalakīrti: They should be sought in the liberation of the tathāgatas.

Mañjuśrī: Where should the liberation of the tathāgatas be sought?

Vimalakīrti: It should be sought in the prime mental activity of all living beings. Mañjuśrī, you ask me why I am without servants, but all māras and opponents are my servants. Why? The māras advocate this life of birth and death and the bodhisattva does not avoid life. The outsider opponents advocate convictions, and the bodhisattva is not troubled by convictions. Therefore, all māras and opponents are my servants.

Mañjuśrī: Householder, of what sort is your sickness?

Vimalakīrti: It is immaterial and invisible.

Mañjuśrī: Is it physical or mental?

Vimalakīrti: It is not physical, since the body is insubstantial in itself. It is not mental, since the nature of the mind is like illusion.

Mañjuśrī: Householder, which of the four main elements is disturbed: earth, water, fire, or air?

Vimalakīrti: Mañjuśrī, I am sick only because the elements of living beings are disturbed by sicknesses.¹¹⁸

Mañjuśrī: Householder, how should a bodhisattva console another bodhisattva who is sick?

Vimalakīrti: He should tell him that the body is impermanent, but should not exhort him to renunciation or disgust. He should tell him that the body is miserable, but should not encourage him to find solace in liberation; that the body is selfless, but that living beings should be developed; that the body is peaceful, but not to seek any ultimate calm. He should tell him to confess his evil deeds, but not just to escape them.¹¹⁹ He should encourage his empathy for all living beings on account of his own sickness, his remembrance of suffering experienced from beginningless time,