Falsely Claiming Realization of Fruition Is Deceptive Theft

Buddhism also has some acts of stealing. For example, impersonating a person of cultivation and realized virtue is the offense of stealing reputation and fame. Without the consent of a virtuous person, taking that virtuous person's teachings and passing them off as one's own Dharma to spread among the public, in order to gain worldly fame and offerings, is an act of stealing. These are acts of stealing a great virtuous one's name and infringing upon a great virtuous one's reputation. 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 grand theft. All counterfeit and shoddy products in Buddhism are acts of stealing.

Modern people do not work hard at 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 they impersonate. The karmic consequence is that in the future they must not only repay what they gained countless times over, but also suffer the evil retribution of the three evil destinies. When conditions in this life ripen, they first receive the flowering retribution, and in later lives they receive the retributive fruit.

If a person says: "I am Maitreya Bodhisattva come again," but in fact is not, that person has stolen 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 that Maitreya Bodhisattva possesses. The gap between ordinary beings and sages, in mental conduct and in other respects, is truly enormous; the karmic offenses committed by an ordinary person impersonating a sage are truly enormous. Committing even a tiny offense brings retributive fruit multiplied countless times over. Because of committing such offenses, there will be tremendous obstacles to cultivation and many adverse conditions.

The most obvious, most vile, and most pernicious act of stealing is issuing false certificates, fake certificates of realized fruit, and fake certificates of enlightenment—this is the most serious form of fraudulent stealing. Ignorant people spend money to buy realization of fruit, yet end up with no true realization of fruit—just a fake certificate issued. Those who certify others and guide people toward realizing fruit, 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 grand acts of stealing. There is also the case of using the guidance toward seeing one's true mind and enlightenment as a means, conducting false certification of enlightenment and collecting large sums of money, with the result that there is no true seeing of the true mind or enlightenment, and even the realization of fruit is fake. Those who pay and sign up merely obtain a false reputation, with no actual cultivation or realization and no true wisdom arising—this is theft of a fraudulent nature.

The theft of an extremely vile nature is this: while remaining a layperson, to act as one of 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. Staging fake 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 all bounds without limit—this is the greatest and most serious robbery-style theft in the world, of an extremely vile nature with extremely serious retributive fruit. Making a mess of false reputations, touting large numbers of fake sages, falsely reporting realization-attainment just as output was falsely reported in the era of the Great Leap Forward—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, wicked to the core; nothing could be worse or more evil, far exceeding the acts of killing and arson. This is equivalent to shedding the Buddha's blood, destroying the Three Jewels, and causing people in the world to lose their pure eyes and their reliance—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 boundless greed and lust, unable to extricate themselves. He is very clever, with meticulous scheming and manifold means, doing everything possible to gather all ordinary beings into his grasp, not letting them leave the desire realm. Ordinary beings cannot recognize him, much less defeat him; even noble-stage bodhisattvas after enlightenment cannot defeat him. Only bodhisattvas on 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 the same as wisdom: Māra Pāpīyas is without wisdom. A person with wisdom does not commit great evil karma and will not plunge deep into saṃsāra for petty gains.