What are the standards of a good bodhisattva?

If you wish to cultivate swiftly and be a good bodhisattva, you must speak gently and softly with others; do not be sharp-tongued and aggressive. You should be good at reconciling disputes, and try your best to gather in and embrace sentient beings. The bodhisattva's four means of embracing (catvāri-saṃgraha-vastūni) should be practiced as much as possible—embracing sentient beings comes first, while making enemies is a great taboo for a bodhisattva. In the eyes of a bodhisattva there should be no adversaries; all sentient beings are the objects of one's own embracing. Therefore, do not treat the practice center as a battlefield, endlessly debating with your tongue to fight for victory or defeat, over who is high or low, who is strong or weak.

The "self" within each person's mind must be strictly guarded; do not always show your edge, provoking others' anger with a strong, forceful ego-mind. You should be good at subduing and concealing the self. Subduing one's own afflictions is true cultivation—not always wanting to subdue others and suppress them. A bodhisattva's disposition should be gentle; toward others, one should move them with feeling and persuade them with reason. One should not refuse to yield even when in the right; sometimes stepping back a single step can actually win over and embrace others more effectively.

Both delivering others and cultivation require a balance of firmness and gentleness—be firm with yourself and firm toward adverse circumstances, but toward people be as gentle as possible. Only in this way can you gather all sentient beings around yourself and become one with them. If your speech keeps people a thousand miles away, it will only drive sentient beings away and estrange you from them, making it impossible to form wholesome karmic affinities with them. Such a person is not a qualified bodhisattva and cannot embrace sentient beings.

When the disposition is rigid, it is easily broken and prone to sudden violence; when the disposition is soft, it bends but does not snap. As a bodhisattva, one should be flexible—able to bend when bending is needed, yet able to spring back to the original position and remain unchanged. A bodhisattva should by nature be good at harmonizing all kinds of disputes, and should not constantly provoke endless conflicts. Learning to be a good bodhisattva—gentle, compliant, and harmonious—and learning to embrace sentient beings is a required course for every bodhisattva. Refusing to yield even when in the right is a great taboo for a bodhisattva; sharp-tongued and aggressive speech is a great taboo for a bodhisattva. Violating this alienates sentient beings and forms unwholesome karmic affinities with them, thereby violating the bodhisattva's four means of embracing.