False Attainment of Fruits Is a Deceptive Theft

Buddhism also has some acts of stealing. For example, impersonating a person who has cultivation and realized virtue is the offense of stealing reputation and fame. Without the consent of a virtuous person, misappropriating that virtuous person's teachings and spreading them as one's own Dharma to the public in order to gain worldly fame and offerings is an act of stealing. These are matters of misappropriating the reputation of great virtuous ones and violating their good name. More serious still is impersonating a great virtuous one such as the Venerable Ānanda come again, impersonating a great virtuous arhat come again, impersonating a great virtuous bodhisattva come again, and even daring to impersonate the Buddha come again—all of these belong to great theft. All counterfeit and shoddy products in Buddhism belong to acts of stealing.

Modern people do not work hard at their practice; in order to gain fame and offerings, they widely proclaim outwardly that they are so-and-so come again—this is even more certainly theft. Whose Dharma have they stolen? They have stolen all the Dharma of the sage they impersonate; everything they gain should belong to the person impersonated. The karmic consequence is that in the future they will not only have to repay what they gained countless times over, but will also suffer evil retributions in the three evil destinies. When the causes and conditions of this life mature, they will first suffer the flowering retribution (puṣpa-phala), and in later lives suffer the retributive result.

If a person says: "I am Maitreya Bodhisattva come again," but in fact is not, this person has misappropriated the honored and sacred name of Maitreya Bodhisattva as well as his honor; everything gained thereby belongs to Maitreya Bodhisattva—he has stolen the Dharma possessed by Maitreya Bodhisattva. The gap between ordinary beings and sages in mental conduct and other aspects is truly enormous; the karmic offenses committed by an ordinary being impersonating a sage are truly enormous. Committing even a tiny offense brings countless times the retribution. Because of committing such offenses, there will be great obstacles to cultivation, with many adverse conditions.

The most obvious, most vile, and most harmful act of stealing is issuing false certificates, fake certificates of realized fruition, and fake enlightenment certificates—this is the most serious fraudulent act of stealing. Ignorant people spend money to buy certificates of fruition, yet have no true realization of fruition, only a fake certificate issued. Those who certify and guide others to realize fruition, while themselves having no cultivation and no realization, no virtue and no ability, using deceptive means to conduct false certification and issue fake certificates—all of these are great acts of stealing. There are also those who use guiding others to seeing the mind and enlightenment as a means, conducting false certification of enlightenment and collecting large sums of money, yet the result is no true seeing of the mind or enlightenment; even the realized fruition is fake. Those who pay and register only obtain a false reputation, with no actual cultivation and realization, and no true wisdom arising—this is theft of a fraudulent nature.

The theft of an extremely vile nature is this: taking on a layperson's identity to act as the Buddhist Three Jewels, replacing the true Three Jewels and squeezing monastics out of the ranks of the Three Jewels—this is robbery-style theft, of an extremely vile nature with extremely serious consequences. Faking enlightenment, manufacturing fake bodhisattvas, reading the monastic precepts while in a lay body, pointing fingers and giving directions to monastics and to the Three Jewels, transgressing without any bottom line—this is the greatest and most serious robbery-style theft in the world, of an extremely vile nature, with extremely serious karmic retribution. Making a chaotic mess of false reputations, touting large numbers of fake sages, falsely reporting realization levels just like the inflated production figures of the Great Leap Forward era—all of these are extremely serious and extremely vile acts of stealing in the world. Phenomena like these are rotten to the core, evil to the core, bad to the core; nothing could be worse or more evil, far exceeding the acts of killing and arson. This is equivalent to drawing the blood of a Buddha, destroying the Three Jewels, and causing people in the world to lose their pure eyes and their refuge—an enormously evil deed.

Māra Pāpīyas also frequently impersonates sages and worthies coming to this world to destroy the Buddha-Dharma and mislead sentient beings, trapping them in the desire realm to commit countless greedy desires, unable to extricate themselves. He is very clever, with meticulous thinking and manifold means, doing everything possible to entangle all ordinary beings in his grasp, not letting them leave the desire realm. Ordinary beings cannot recognize him, much less defeat him; even bodhisattvas at the stage of faith and abiding after enlightenment cannot defeat him. Only bodhisattvas who have attained the bhūmis can refute him from the standpoint of both worldly and world-transcending dharmas and expose his disguise; therefore ordinary beings are extremely easily deceived. But cleverness is not equal to wisdom. Māra Pāpīyas is without wisdom; a person with wisdom does not commit great evil karma and will not deeply fall into saṃsāra for petty gains.