Without Walking the Bodhisattva Path, One Does Not Know the Excellence of Following Conditions
The wisdom of Buddhism ultimately comes down to the two words "following conditions" (sui yuan). A mindset of following conditions is not easily cultivated. If one has a grasping attitude toward conditions, too much attachment and obsession, one will inevitably end up making oneself very vexed.
Between the highest fruition of Theravada Buddhism, the Arhat fruit, and the highest fruition of Mahayana Buddhism, the Buddha fruit, there is also the fruition of the Bodhisattva. A Bodhisattva is a Buddha on the road to Buddhahood. The Bodhisattva bears the Tathagata's burden, carrying the load of guiding and delivering all sentient beings, walking all the way forward. In the end, in the very process of guiding beings, one realizes that no one can deliver all sentient beings, and that sentient beings need no one to deliver them. Life is like a shipwreck on the great sea; for each person to be saved, he can only save himself. The relief offered by others is, when conditions ripen, simply an impulsive reaching of a hand; when conditions have not ripened, do not force it.
The human world takes ten thousand shapes; each sentient being has his own sweet and sour, his own joy and anger, sorrow and delight, and his own life choices. Once a person has learned a half-bucket, he is extremely prone to acting the teacher, pointing fingers at others everywhere and hoping to assimilate them. This is the narrowness of the ignorant who know no fear.
The great world has wonders beyond our imagining. The life state and realm in which others find themselves may be no worse than our own, and what others believe may be no lower than what we believe. As long as others are happy within it, why go out of one's way to disturb their inner peace? When we zealously propagate the so-called "Way," we easily turn ourselves into a repulsive fellow. If we preach with an agenda, our appearance is all the more odious.
What exists is reasonable. Apart from acts that harm others, no act in the world is worth criticizing, nor worth describing with words like "sin." Once a person has made his own life choice, he should peacefully keep to that choice. At most, in the vast sea of people, he can look for a few kindred spirits to enjoy one another's company. Why measure the peaceful other with one's own ruler, comment on his strengths and weaknesses, debate his right and wrong, or labor to turn him into someone like oneself?
Only through seeing the world clearly can one attain a peaceful mindset; only a peaceful mindset can produce a self that follows conditions; only a self that follows conditions can possess a life without vexation. One who can carry a thousand-catty burden as lightly as a feather must be a person without perplexity and without attachment in his heart. With a heart that follows conditions, to do in the world what one likes—without desire or demand, letting go at death—how free and easy!