The Offense of Usurping the Attainments and Stages of Sages and Worthies

Claiming realization without having realized it constitutes major false speech, and it also involves the offense of stealing, because in essence one has not realized any dharma at all—there is no attainment of fruition and no seeing of the mind—yet one declares oneself to be a srotāpanna, sakṛdāgāmin, or anāgāmin; clearly one has not genuinely seen the mind, yet one declares oneself to be a bodhisattva of the abode stage, the practice stage, or the dedication stage, or even a bodhisattva of the first or second bhūmi, appropriating for oneself the names and meritorious benefits that belong to true bodhisattvas. This is grand theft—the things stolen are extremely precious, and the offense is therefore especially grave. Yet many people disregard this matter, not knowing how extremely serious its nature is. They never deign to examine and check whether they possess the merits, qualities, and mental character of sages, yet they appropriate the names and fruitions of sages for themselves, thereby deceiving the world and stealing their reputation, confusing and misleading people, destroying sentient beings' faith in the sages, betraying sentient beings' trust, and dragging the qualities of the sages down to the level of ordinary beings.

Deceiving the world and stealing reputation also includes this: clearly one is not the foremost, yet one insists on claiming to be the foremost—that is theft, stealing the reputation and merit of the foremost one, along with the benefits that follow; clearly one is not the second, yet one insists on claiming to be the second—likewise stealing the reputation and meritorious benefits of the second. Whatever one has and whatever one is, one must state truthfully; whatever one does not have and whatever one is not, one must also state truthfully. Do not state things in a perverse, inverted way—to state things in an inverted way is theft.

When some people see something belonging to others, a thought arises in their mind: "How wonderful it would be if that were mine." At the moment such a thought arises, a thieving mind has appeared—placing what belongs to others upon one's own mind is a thieving mind; only the action has not yet occurred, so the offense of stealing is not complete. Some people know that another person has a good reputation and think: "I will make use of it." At that moment the thieving mind has appeared; once the exploitation is actually carried out, the precept against stealing has been violated. For example, if you do something or say something in my name, and I do not know about it—and had I known, I would not have consented—yet you do it anyway, that is theft.