Now Is The Time

Those of dull faculties, who desire lesser dharmas,
   Who out of sheer greed cling to birth and death,
Who in the presence of incalculable Buddhas
   Still fail to tread the profound and subtle Path.
And who are tormented by multitudinous woes—
   For these I preach nirvana.
Devising this expedient device, I
   Enable them to enter into the Buddha's wisdom.
I never told them, "You all
   Shall be able to achieve the Path of the Buddha."
The reason I never told them
   Is that the time to tell it had not yet come.
Now is precisely the time
   To preach the Great Vehicle definitively.

---The Buddha speaking to Sariputra, in The Lotus Sutra---