The Offense of Stealing Property from the Sangha of the Ten Directions

If you are in a monastery, no matter whether an item is useful to the monastery or not, lay practitioners should never take and use it without authorization, let alone take it away. Because all possessions in a monastery belong to the sangha of the ten directions, including monks from other worlds beyond the Saha world; monks of all worlds in the ten directions have the right to enjoy them. If you personally take and use them, you are stealing the belongings of monastics from worlds in the ten directions—this is a debt that fundamentally cannot be repaid, and this offense is karma leading to the hells, even the karma of the Avīci hell.

Offerings from the ten directions are the offerings made by sentient beings in the ten directions centered on the Saha world. The ten directions are east, south, west, north, up, down, southeast, southwest, northeast, and northwest. The sangha property of the ten directions refers to the belongings of monastics from worlds in the ten directions. Worlds vary in size: large worlds refer to the Buddha-lands surrounding the Saha world in the ten directions, while small worlds refer to the small worlds within the Saha world in the ten directions. One small world of the Saha world includes the four great continents, the four great seas, the seven golden mountains, the Heaven of the Four Heavenly Kings, the Trāyastriṃśa Heaven, the Tuṣita Heaven, the Yāma Heaven, the Nirmāṇarati Heaven, the Paranirmitavaśavartin Heaven, as well as the first dhyāna heaven. One thousand small worlds constitute a medium thousand-world; one thousand medium thousand-worlds constitute a great thousand-world.

Anyone who has committed this offense must make earnest repentance before the Buddha until a good sign appears; only then can the offense of stealing the property of the Three Jewels be eradicated. For example: the Buddha comes to touch your head and comfort you, telling you that your offense has been eradicated; or you see lotus flowers blooming; or you smell fragrance in the air; or in a dream Buddhas and bodhisattvas come to bless you—such extraordinary signs are good signs. Otherwise, the offense still remains, and at the end of your life you will fall into the hells to undergo retribution.

Deliberately or unintentionally wasting the monastery's items means wasting and consuming the sangha property of the ten directions; this offense is also not small—you owe a debt to the sangha of the ten directions, which is not easy to repay. Therefore, everyone in a monastery must be frugal and not waste anything; if something is damaged, it must be compensated immediately. If compensation is overdue, it must be doubled or multiplied. The Vinaya sūtras say that if a person violates the precepts and does not repent, after one night the offense doubles; after two nights it doubles again, becoming fourfold. It is the same with debts owed to the Three Jewels: they double with each passing night. Anyone who has ever privately taken away any item from a monastery, or damaged items, or wasted items—including water, electricity, gas, and the like—must find a way to make amends and compensate. If it is of the nature of stealing, not only must one compensate, but one must also strive every day to make earnest repentance, seeking to see a good sign. If one wants evil karma to be eradicated and to avoid or lessen evil retribution, first there is repentance, and second there is remediation, including monetary and material compensation.

Some lay practitioners, upon arriving at a monastery, like to take charge and act as masters on behalf of the monastery's masters. Regardless of whether the masters are willing or permit it, they seize all power themselves, making decisions on everything without authorization, as if they were in their own homes—not only managing affairs, but also managing money, and even managing people. Depriving monastics of their rights is an extremely grave offense; whether it can be purified through repentance is hard to say. Some people, upon arriving at a monastery, even try to manage the monastics themselves—monastics must obey their commands in whatever they do or do not do, instructing monastics to do the things they have arranged, in order to satisfy their own greed and desire for control. This is the inferior defying the superior, and contempt for the Three Jewels and the dignity of the Three Jewels. Monastics are not subject to the management or direction of any layperson; only the monastic's own master has the authority to manage and educate them, as well as the abbot of the monastery where they reside and the monastic administrators who have the authority to manage.

What monastics are primarily subject to is the education and governance of the Buddhas and bodhisattvas of the ten directions; even the earth gods and other Dharma-protecting deities have no qualification or authority, because monastics are directly the disciples of the Buddha, not the disciples of Dharma-protecting deities. Monastics may only pay homage to Buddhas and bodhisattvas, not to Dharma-protecting deities. Therefore, if a layperson's desire for power is too strong, they should restrain themselves as much as possible; if they truly cannot restrain themselves, they should stay away from monasteries and away from monastics, so as to avoid creating karma leading to the hells and suffering the torment of hell.

There are also some laypeople who like to wear monastic robes and like to use monastics' names. Others like to impersonate monastics in order to receive veneration and various offerings—this is the greatest theft among thefts. There are also some lay practitioners who insist on claiming that they themselves are also part of the Three Jewels and should receive the treatment accorded to the Three Jewels. This is an act that infringes upon the reputation and fame of the Three Jewels, with an extremely pernicious influence; it belongs to great greed and great theft, admits no repentance—repentance is of little use—and they will still have to report to the hells.