The History of Buddhist Thought c24.44

c24.44

He practises in their fullness the four elements of popularity. These are, giving or liberality, pleasant speech, beneficent conduct, and impartiality. Like a skilled sailor who knows the nature of waves and currents and embarks on a great ship in the ocean but is not defiled by the filthy water, so the bodhisattva in the seventh stage has entered the great ocean of omniscience and has embarked on the great ship of the Perfections, but he does not yet realize cessation (Nirvāṇa). He has the knowledge of a Buddha and exercises to the full his task of saving all beings.