The following discussion by Kajiyama Yūichi [Professor of Buddhist Studies at Kyoto University, 1925-2004] concerns the element of play (asobi) in the Prajn͂āpāramitā (Hannya) literature and the Avataṃsaka-sūtra (Kegon-kyō). He makes an important point about the conception of the bodhisattva as working within the realm of suffering so that he might help all sentient beings (shujō) to find release.

A bodhisattva is not one who pursues the perfection of wisdom while all the time thinking of his activity as painful austerities. He will never be able to do anything good for sentient beings while having the idea that he is an ascetic; on the contrary, it is only when he begins to enjoy what he is doing that he will be successful. The reason for this is that, because there is to be no self whatsoever, even that of the bodhisattva is emptiness.

Kajiyama then refers to what is often called the “Jūji-kyō,” a chapter of the Kegon Sutra in which ten of the most important bhūmi, or “stages in the development of a bodhisattva,” are described. He summarizes what the sutra says concerning the highest stages:

Then all the bodhisattva’s activities are performed freely, not with the notion that some kind of effort must be expended (muku yūgyō). This means that his actions are not things he intends in order to realize his own definite goals; they are, therefore, not conditioned by such intention. This implies that salvation is by easy practice, something equivalent to “play” (asobi, or yuge jintsū). Even compassion is not thought of as compassion but becomes, so to speak, unconcerned compassion, because in it there is no attachment to goals. This is why the actions of the bodhisattva are empty and pure.