To Be a Qualified Disciple of the Buddha

In school, a qualified student is certainly a "three-good student" with all-round development in virtue, intelligence, and physical fitness. In Buddhism, a good disciple of the Buddha should be a Buddhist disciple with all-round development in precepts, meditative concentration (samādhi), and wisdom, one who is fully endowed with the six pāramitās—a practitioner in whom ability and disposition of mind are perfectly combined. A person possessing both virtue and talent is a very rare and precious kind of talent, extremely scarce. If someone has only a certain ability but his disposition of mind is unwholesome and not pliant, such a person cannot be given important responsibilities. If his disposition is wholesome but his ability is insufficient, he can still barely be used and can be cultivated. But if both his ability and his disposition are inadequate, he must absolutely not be used.

The disposition of mind is manifested in selflessness. Before the elimination of self-view (ahaṃkāra-mamakāra-parityāga), some people have a heavy self-nature, while others have a light self-nature. Those with a slight self-nature can, of course, eliminate self-view more easily than those with a heavy self-nature, and can more easily attain realization of the fruits. One who always wants to control and dominate others is a person with heavy self-nature; one who is unwilling to be managed, unwilling to obey leadership, is also a person with heavy self-nature—his disposition of mind is not harmonious, and in all cases it is the mind of self that is causing trouble.

A person with a slight self-nature is relatively easygoing and agreeable, holding an indifferent attitude toward certain people and affairs, not much concerned with his own position and power. In a group, those who cause the most problems are precisely these people with heavy self-nature. If there is no strong leader, the group will fall into complete chaos.

A Buddhist group certainly has Dharma-protecting deities upholding it. The disposition of mind of every person is crystal clear to the Dharma-protecting deities—what disposition this person has, what purpose he harbors, what role he can play—the Dharma-protecting deities know it all. Therefore, what role a person should assume in the group will be managed by the Dharma-protecting deities. Some people have heavy selfishness and would have a destructive effect on the group; the Dharma-protecting deities will find ways to remove and isolate them.