Supreme Wisdom Is Supreme Compassion

In ancient India, women and children were considered the private property of their husbands and fathers, and men could freely give away or sell their wives and children. The Buddha did not overturn this custom and allowed his disciples to give away their wives at will before renouncing household life to pursue the path. The low status of women in ancient times seems highly unreasonable to us today, yet no women resisted at the time; they willingly endured it. When an unreasonable phenomenon persists, there must be hidden, reasonable causal laws behind it that sentient beings cannot comprehend, but the Buddha knew. Therefore, the Buddha initially did not permit women to renounce household life to pursue the path. This was not due to a lack of compassion on the Buddha’s part, but rather because such compassion would have shortened the period of the true Dharma by five hundred years, failing to liberate countless sentient beings with spiritual capacity. This would have been a loss for Buddhism and for all sentient beings. Ultimately, however, the Buddha had no choice but to accept women into monastic life. Thus, with the wisdom of ordinary beings, compassion and non-compassion, good and non-good, can never be truly understood; the perceptions of sentient beings are fundamentally inverted. Whatever the Buddha did, it was always compassionate. Whether moving left or right, up or down, east or west, it was all compassion. Considered from every angle, approached from different circumstances, based on specific situations, or for the overall benefit of Buddhism—it was all compassion. Conditions differ, outcomes differ, and thus choices differ. Therefore, one cannot say that the Buddha was compassionate in this action but not in that one. Whatever the Buddha did was compassionate, due to his great wisdom and great compassion. The same applies to me: whether I respond to sentient beings or not, it is always for their sake, not for personal gain. My time, energy, and mental efforts belong to all sentient beings and to Buddhism, not to me personally. Therefore, everything should be done with the bigger picture in mind, for the overall benefit of Buddhism. If acting for the sake of a few would harm the interests of the majority, then one should not expend mental effort solely for that few. The overall cause of Buddhism must always take precedence over the interests of any subset of sentient beings. Those with wisdom must make correct trade-offs to maximize benefit and allocate mental and physical effort reasonably. The Saha World encompasses more than just Jambudvipa; Jambudvipa is merely a celestial body within a small world among the three thousand great chiliocosms of the Saha World. The entire Saha World contains ten trillion celestial bodies, each filled with sentient beings in need of liberation and salvation. Bodhisattvas belong to all sentient beings throughout the ten directions, not just to those of one region. The heart of a bodhisattva should be immensely vast, with vision set upon the entire world and universe. Therefore, whether coming to this world or not, it is always for the sake of Buddhism and all sentient beings—it is all compassion.