維摩經略疏 7.40

7.40

Question: When the bodhisattva themselves has an illness, they may pity others; if they themselves have no illness, how can they pity others with their own [illness]? Moreover, although the separate teaching has ignorance and [delusions like] dust and sand that differ from fragmented [birth and death], how can one pity others with one's own? Answer: There are two explanations for this. First: when the bodhisattva severs the four entrenchments, having only ignorance and its latencies, they immediately produce this thought: "If my present illness of ignorance is already like this, how much more so for sentient beings who are fully bound—how could they endure the heavy suffering within the realm?" This means that with one's own lightness one ought to pity their heaviness; hence one must emerge into provisionality. Another explanation: the illness of ignorance is light, and the illness of the four entrenchments is heavy; how could one pity the heavy with the light?