[2] Yinlü Wuqing, vol. 1, ch. 28, on the teaching hall and the Five Precepts. Vol. 2, ch. 17, describes an individual whose repentance must develop further before she can be taken to hear Dizang.
[3] Yinlü Wuqing, vol. 1, ch. 28, on the practitioner’s earlier generosity, theft of vital energy, repentance, human rebirth and the continuing conditions of his next life.
[4] Yinlü Wuqing, vol. 1, ch. 29, on the Southern Three Sages and Diting, the man who slandered a lay practitioner, his son’s daily recitation and dedication, his own repentance and his future human life. The passage gives both descriptions of the man’s former discipline without specifying their respective scope or timing.
[5] In vol. 1, ch. 29, the predicted female rebirth is itself included among the remaining consequences. The observation about the passage’s unequal valuation of male and female lives is this introduction’s explanation of that feature.
[6] Yinlü Wuqing, vol. 1, ch. 29, on the woman’s cruelty towards her stepchild and mother-in-law, her acknowledgement of wrongdoing, her return to punishment and a beneficial connection in a distant future life.
[7] Dao Lan’s postscript to volume 1, on lasting reform and helping others change; vol. 1, ch. 28, on the possibility of returning to hell after rescue if harmful conduct resumes.
[8] Adamek, “Addressing the Mind,” especially pp. 132–135 and 140, on confession, the cessation of wrongdoing and religious help in the particular Sui-Tang and early Chan materials discussed. [Source 1](https://chinesebuddhiststudies.org/wp-content/uploads/jcbs2804_Adamek117-152.pdf)
Compassion and the Help We Give
The judge describes the compassion of Buddhas as care guided by wisdom, offered without distinction of kinship, race or religious allegiance. It reaches beings who suffer and helps them respond to what has happened in their lives. This help follows the law of cause and effect: a teaching can awaken repentance, and repentance can allow further help to take effect. The accounts of rescue give this relationship a concrete form. [1]
Guanyin, known in Sanskrit as Avalokiteshvara, is especially associated with answering suffering. The Universal Gateway chapter of the Lotus Sutra describes the bodhisattva appearing in forms suited to those who can be taught through them. In Yinlü Wuqing, the judge uses this teaching to explain an encounter with a Catholic boy. The boy recognises the Virgin Mary; the judge identifies her appearance as a manifestation of Guanyin. [2]