The teaching of an ideal state of mind is holy indeed, but it does not show its worth so long as it lies idle in one’s mind. The true worth of the ideal teaching is appreciated only when and where people realize it little by little in their daily lives.

This is clearly displayed through the actions of the Bodhisattva Wonder Sound [Wonderful-Voice Bodhisattva]: this Bodhisattva (or ideal), with a bright golden body of infinite size, went to Śākyamuni Buddha, who had perfected the thirty-two signs and the eighty distinctive bodily marks of a buddha but had assumed the form of an ordinary man, and the bodhisattva made obeisance at the Buddha’s feet and presented a precious necklace to him. The Bodhisattva Wonder Sound, as the symbol of an ideal, praised Śākyamuni Buddha, who appeared in this world as a perfected man, saying, “You are the one indeed who has realized our ideal.” The Bodhisattva Wonder Sound came to the actual world from an ideal realm for the purpose of praising and proving how great and holy a thing it is for people to endeavor to establish the Righteous Law and to build an ideal society in this sahā-world, filled as it is with defilements and evils.