Imagine a child sleeping next to its parents and dreaming it is being
beaten or is painfully sick. The parents cannot help the child no matter
how much it suffers, for no one can enter the dreaming mind of another.
If the child could awaken itself, it could be freed of this suffering
automatically. In the same way, one who realizes that his own Mind is
Buddha frees himself instantly from the sufferings arising from
[ignorance of the law of] ceaseless change of birth-and-death. If a
Buddha could prevent it, do you think he would allow even one sentient
being to fall into hell? Without Self-Realization one cannot understand
such things as these.
-- Bassui Tokusho Zenji, "Dharma Talk on One Mind," in Daily Sutras
from /Everyday Mind,/ edited by Jean Smith, a /Tricycle/ book
