Contemplation: Free of Bonds

After reviewing the guidelines for practice, take the following as your contemplation:

[The bodhisattva] is not bound by the conditions of his birth, and hence he is able to teach the Dharma for living beings and liberate them from their bonds.  As the Buddha has said, if one is in bonds himself, to suppose he can free others from their bonds is hardly reasonable.  But if one is himself free of bonds, it is perfectly reasonable to assume he can free the bonds of others.  Therefore, the bodhisattva must not conjure up bonds for himself.

Vimalakirti Sutra, trans. Burton Watson, p. 70; diction altered slightly