Was it like:

The Emperor, handing over his precious sword, at midnight calls for war and sets the day?

“Chín tầng gươm báu trao tay / Nửa đêm truyền hịch định ngày xuất chinh” (Đoàn thị Điểm)

A precious sword? Absolutely. The sword that was handed here was the sharpest, made of diamond, able to slice through all human suffering and destined misfortune of mankind. This task is entrusted to the “future” Bodhisattvas, the good men and women who aspires to throw themselves into life’s danger with zeal, eager to spread forth the liberating Dharma. As for the Worthy Ones who had eliminated all afflictions, who had laid the “burdens” down, it would also help that they chose to commit themselves to return to the samsaric world and continue upholding the Dharma source! I remember having read: “when the source is deep, the stream is long!” The source must be deep so for the stream to be long!

And what about going to war? The war here is not with other countries to defend one’s own or to occupy another but to be at war with ourselves, with the greed-aversion–ignorance foes inside each of us. Lao Tzu said: “those who conquer others are strong; those who conquer themselves are powerful”. It’s difficult to conquer oneself. One needs a precious sword for that.

The way Subhuti praised Buddha of “how precious, dedicated and mindful the Tathagata was taught to all the Bodhisattvas, protecting and instructing them so well” already expressed this. Nowadays, this is known as “creating motivation” as part of the participatory education. With the use of motivation, students study better, or else they might… fall asleep! Maybe everybody assembled there was just as stupefied, making them more open, more enthusiastic to absorb the teaching. Each of them vowed to strive to be a bodhisattva to deserve the Buddha’s protection and trust.