Buddhist narratives recount one story in which Atisha comes across a woman alternately crying and laughing. Confused with her behaviour, he inquires about her condition, and she responds: "[O]ne's own mind has been a Buddha from beginning less time. By not knowing this, great complications follow from such a small base of error for hundreds of thousands of sentient beings…. Not being able to bear the suffering for so many beings, I cry. And then, I laugh because when this small basis of error is known—when one knows one's own mind—one is freed