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Mahayana Sutra - Northern Transmission - Yogachara School 01
Offering to those who have just ordained—even if it is a warm coat, sandals, or an undershirt—brings much greater merit, because “offering to these ones is also offering to the Buddha, to the Buddhas,” with the faith that everyone will become a Buddha. We should not hesitate, relying on the wholesome seeds we have sown, to continue supporting the Sangha, especially elder brothers, elder sisters, and younger siblings who are still lacking.
Vimalakirti manifested as a lay friend only as a skillful means; his true nature is that of a Mahāyāna Bodhisattva:
- Mastering skillful means to liberate living beings, thoroughly contemplating the capacities and roots—sharp or dull—of each being
- Dwelling long in the Buddha Way, firmly established in the Great Vehicle, acting with skillful consideration, maintaining mindfulness, precepts, and deportment
- A heart vast as the ocean, respected by all Buddhas, Indra, Brahma, and the world
- Manifesting in many forms: lay friend, Bodhisattva, goddess, woman or man, adapting to the capacities of beings to help them transform
He feigned illness as a way to manifest and teach about the emptiness of the body (impermanence, non-self, like bubbles and foam), calling forth the aspiration for awakening (unsurpassed, complete, perfect enlightenment). In the Chapter of the Disciples, the ten foremost disciples of the Thus Come One all declined to visit Vimalakirti’s house because they did not yet have enough eloquence:
- Śāriputra
- Maudgalyāyana
- Mahākāśyapa
- Subhūti
- Pūrṇa
- Kātyāyana
- Aniruddha
- Upāli
- Rāhula
- Ānanda
He then compared the meditation of the Lesser Vehicle (entering the state of extinction) with the meditation of the Great Vehicle: dwelling right within the three realms with an unmoving mind, “neither inside nor outside,” letting go of notions of birth and death, arriving at the suchness of the Dharma, sitting in stillness in the midst of the world.