Fearing a Bad Reputation and Not Fearing a Bad Reputation Are Both Protection for Sentient Beings

Original text of the Sūtra on the Mindful Abiding in the Dharma, Volume Sixty-One: 如是恶人。比丘一切不应亲近。何以故。近如是人。失比丘法。世间之人。作如是念。如是比丘。近如是人。必与同行。与如是人习近共行。生一切人如是之念。是故比丘当畏恶名。不应与此不净业人同路。行于一足之地。
Explanation: Why does the Buddha require bhikṣus to avoid evil people and to fear a bad reputation? Because a bhikṣu is a monastic who represents the Three Jewels and is the place of refuge for sentient beings. If a bhikṣu associates with evil people, his reputation will be affected, and he will be disdained by sentient beings, causing them not to revere the Three Jewels, not to respect and trust the Three Jewels, and even to slander the Three Jewels and commit unwholesome karma. Therefore, the Buddha instructed bhikṣus to avoid all such evil people mentioned above, so as not to be implicated, to fall into a bad reputation, and to be ridiculed by sentient beings. Thus, all the conduct of a bhikṣu should conform to the vinaya discipline and to the standards. If it is for the sake of delivering sentient beings, one should also find ways to avoid causing other sentient beings to misunderstand; where there are points of misunderstanding or matters that cannot be explained clearly, one should avoid letting others know. This is like adults doing things: if a child, with a child's intelligence, simply cannot understand, then one should try to avoid it and not let the child know. Sentient beings are just like children—what can one do? They will be fine once they grow up.
As for bodhisattvas who wish to deliver sentient beings, if these evil people's karmic conditions have ripened and they also need to be delivered, then skillful means and appropriate methods are required, trying as much as possible to avoid sentient beings' misunderstandings and subsequent slander. In such matters, people of insufficient wisdom cannot handle them with perfect ease; only those of great wisdom can accomplish them, because sentient beings, with their various afflictions and ignorance, are very difficult to deal with. If the evil person's karmic conditions are not ripe, then avoid them if possible and go do more important things; since one's energy is limited, one should make choices, using wise discernment to select those with the greatest benefit.
The Buddha required bhikṣus to fear a bad reputation, while requiring lay bodhisattvas not to fear a bad reputation; both are for the sake of protecting sentient beings—only the ways of handling the matter differ. But although bodhisattvas do not fear a bad reputation, they must still exercise wise discernment. They cannot, on the grounds of not fearing a bad reputation, care about nothing at all, disregarding the interests of sentient beings and Buddhism, letting Buddhism bear a bad reputation, causing large numbers of sentient beings to ridicule the Three Jewels and commit all kinds of unwholesome karma. Therefore, those who propagate the Dharma must be pure in body and mind, with light afflictions, selfless and without self, prioritizing the overall interests of Buddhism and the interests of sentient beings, guiding sentient beings back onto the correct path with pure bodily, verbal, and mental actions. They must not pollute sentient beings or add more afflictions to them, turning the delivery of sentient beings into harming sentient beings.
For laypeople practicing the bodhisattva path, deliver those who can be delivered as much as possible, and influence with wholesome dharma those who can be influenced as much as possible. As long as one remains vigilant in the mind against being assimilated or being counter-influenced, there is no greater good! The Buddha did not let bhikṣus openly associate and work together with evil people, for fear that sentient beings would misunderstand and ridicule them, and further slander the Three Jewels. Because the identity of a monastic is special—representing the Three Jewels and being the refuge for sentient beings—they must not provoke ridicule and slander from sentient beings. If a bhikṣu's self-discipline is not strong, if he has not yet delivered himself and his mind is not at peace, then he should indeed stay far away from evil people and evil matters, so as to avoid being influenced and assimilated.
People whose afflictions have not been eradicated, whether monastic or lay, are easily influenced by the unwholesome. Even after enlightenment, if one is not careful, one can still be influenced by the unwholesome. If one can maintain meditative concentration and vigilance and has wisdom, then one is not easily influenced. Being truly and completely uninfluenced occurs only at the buddha stage; bodhisattvas at the eighth bhūmi and above are influenced extremely slightly, while those from the first to the seventh bhūmi are influenced somewhat more. Pre-bhūmi bodhisattvas (pūrvabhūmika bodhisattvas) who wish not to be influenced simply cannot do it, because they have not eradicated the root of afflictions—let alone ordinary beings. Therefore, a person in a pure community will be influenced toward some purity, while in a defiled community the mind will unconsciously become defiled along with it—this is unavoidable. I too fear being influenced; from childhood to adulthood, even until now, I have been influenced. Therefore, I strive hard to avoid people with heavy afflictions; even if I am not influenced, it still takes effort to refuse and to resist, and both sides end up unhappy. For bodhisattvas who have eradicated their afflictions, what they are influenced by are only minor, peripheral defilements like branches and leaves; after studying Buddhism, these are also shaken off quickly, without affecting the root. Once a transgression is repented of, it is fine, and the retribution received is also light.