In what ways have Buddhists responded to the apparent impossibility of saving all sentient beings?
Upvote:1
The short answer?
You actually save all the beings in your heart. The hell within. Your demons within of anger, craving, delusion. When they are saved you are left with enlightenment.
Upvote:2
From the Mahayana viewpoint, the mind of enlightenment is the wish to achieve buddhahood in order to benefit all sentient beings. It is true we also often say "to set them in enlightenment" as well.
The omniscient mind of a buddha gives birth to the teachings of the buddha in that it causes him to teach us the Dharma. We say that the teachings of the buddha emanate from his omniscient mind (the wisdom truth body part of the dharmakaya). In a way, he teaches all of us but some do not have the ears to listen to him. This is merely an analogy. The meaning is that not all sentient beings have the karma to listen to the Buddha dharma but his enlightened deeds (in particular his teachings) pervade all sentient beings, just like the rays of the sun illuminate indiscriminately. However, the deeds of a buddha do not engage with all sentient beings, they are capable of doing so.
In his Commentary to Maitreya/Asanga's Great Vehicle Treatise on the Sublime Continuum (mahayanottaratantra-ratnagotravibhanga) Gyaltsab Je says:
These three can be illustrated: meditating on the path of utilizing the basic element results in the attainment of the dharmakaya of a perfect buddha whose enlightened deeds emanate and pervade to all sentient beings. These enlightened deeds of the dharmakaya are capable of engaging with sentient beings and exist exclusively for the mind streams of sentient beings. Because of this it is said that all sentient beings possess tathagata essence. This is similar in meaning to the Abhisamayalamkara when it says, "Because enlightened deeds are vast, it said that the buddha is all pervasive."
And
Illustrating the teachings of conventional and ultimate truth with similes gives further explanation of the term "emanate" in the line, "The perfect buddha body emanates. " This is because "dharmakaya emanates" means "dharmakaya pervades," which in turn refers to being pervaded by enlightened deeds, and enlightened deeds engage with all sentient beings by way of the speech of the tathagatas teaching the dharma to various disciples. The capability of the enlightened deeds to engage with sentient beings is always present and this is the meaning of "pervaded by the dharmakaya.
Additionally, according to Mahayana tenets, the continuum of a buddha is not severed. His enlightened deeds will not stop as long as one being remains in samsara.
Upvote:2
This is Hui Neng's (the Sixth Zen Patriarch) interpretation of the first of the Bodhisatta's Four Vows:
Learned Audience, all of us have now declared that we vow to deliver an infinite number of sentient beings; but what does that mean? It does not mean that I, Hui Neng, am going to deliver them. And who are these sentient beings within our mind? They are the delusive mind, the deceitful mind, the evil mind, and such like minds-all these are sentient beings.
From 'The Platform Sutra': http://zen.thetao.info/read/platform.htm
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