How to Distinguish Good and Evil Spiritual Friends

For a monastic master or a teacher, one should not use the term "evil teacher" (pāpa-mitra). True evil—real evil—should be like the malicious intent of Māra Pāpīyas, who deliberately misleads sentient beings and prevents them from walking the right path and attaining liberation. When ordinary people teach the Dharma, it is merely because their wisdom is insufficient and their level of realization is limited; they do not intentionally lead sentient beings astray onto wrong paths, and they harbor no evil intent. Only Māra King Pāpīyas has evil intent, for he fears and hates those who rescue sentient beings and those who have hope of attaining liberation. Some people lack wisdom yet love to teach the Dharma because of the afflictions in their own minds—they want to prove themselves capable and make sentient beings admire and worship them. But quite a few people, seeing the suffering of sentient beings, make the aspiration to help them attain liberation from afflictions; yet because their wisdom is limited and they have no personal realization, they are unable to lead sentient beings to cultivate in accordance with reality.

As long as one's aspiration is not evil, one cannot be labeled an evil teacher. Most people who teach the Dharma can, in various different ways, benefit sentient beings; even though they have not seen the mind and attained enlightenment, the foundational Buddhist teachings still depend on such people to be transmitted. In the Sahā world there are not so many bodhisattvas who have truly seen the mind and realized enlightenment to teach sentient beings step by step from the basics; bodhisattvas of great wisdom do not have such energy and patience—they want to deliver sentient beings of considerable attainment. Bodhisattvas of different levels of realization deliver sentient beings of different spiritual faculties (indriya). The number of bodhisattvas is inherently very small, so it is impossible to insist on using great talents for trivial purposes and wasting the resources of bodhisattvas.

Since we have already studied and cultivated the Buddha's teachings, we should learn from the Buddha and should not speak offensively; we should respect all Dharma masters and teachers. As for their teaching the Buddha's Dharma incorrectly, this is unavoidable—only the Buddha alone teaches the Dharma without error; all bodhisattvas may possibly teach the Dharma incorrectly. A bodhisattva's wisdom continually advances; the very reason it is called "advancing" is that one's former wisdom was certainly insufficient, so errors and omissions will appear in one's teaching of the Dharma. If a bodhisattva is a good teacher after his wisdom has advanced, then he was formerly an evil teacher—would that not mean that all bodhisattvas, including those of the equal-enlightenment stage, are evil teachers?

In fact, the only truly evil one is Pāpīyas. Pāpīyas has already made a vow before the Buddha that during the Dharma-ending age he would infiltrate Buddhism to destroy the Buddha's Dharma, so that no sentient beings could attain liberation. Now Pāpīyas has come, disguised as a good teacher, and moreover making people feel that he is especially good. Who can open their eyes and see through Pāpīyas's true face? It seems no one can. Since we cannot see through Pāpīyas, how can we judge whether a person is truly a good teacher or an evil teacher?

Sentient beings have, for beginningless kalpas, fallen into the abyss of afflictions, unable to extricate themselves, all relying on the majestic virtue of the Buddhas and bodhisattvas to be rescued and drawn out. If a so-called good teacher not only fails to help sentient beings eliminate their afflictions, but also deliberately adds afflictions to sentient beings—making them constantly crave worldly things, constantly grasp at worldly dharmas, constantly grow in anger, and constantly engage in vicious strife—then the result is that sentient beings become even more unable to extricate themselves, sinking in saṃsāra; not only can they not distance themselves from the afflictions of the three realms, they cannot even eliminate or lessen the afflictions of the desire realm. If anyone shows hope of escaping the desire realm, Pāpīyas feels most troubled, can no longer sit still in his demon palace, and must find ways to hold back and obstruct that person, causing him to give rise to greed and hatred and commit various sinful karmas; that person will then remain in the desire realm or even in the three evil paths, under Pāpīyas's control. Therefore, one criterion for judging whether a person is a good teacher or an evil teacher is to see whether he deliberately instills the afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion into sentient beings, causing them to form widespread evil karmic bonds; entangled by evil karma, they will be unable to escape the desire realm and the three evil paths, and Pāpīyas's descendants will grow ever more numerous, never decreasing.

Evil teachers often seek to destroy the Three Jewels at their very root, wrecking and disordering Buddhism, uprooting the Three Jewels entirely, so that sentient beings cannot take refuge in the true Three Jewels. Pāpīyas will cleverly destroy the image of the Three Jewels in sentient beings' minds, cleverly demeaning the image of the Buddha and demeaning the image of the Saṅgha. Then he will find ways to prevent sentient beings from studying and cultivating the true Buddha's Dharma, preventing them from actual practice and realization; he will cleverly prevent sentient beings from cultivating the bodhisattva's six perfections and from cultivating precepts, meditative concentration (samādhi), and wisdom, so that all sentient beings are unable to attain realization, cannot truly eradicate the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi-prahāṇa), and cannot truly see the mind. Moreover, he will deliberately cause sentient beings to commit the karma of great false speech, with each and every one believing himself to be a true bodhisattva and all others to be demon sons and demon grandsons. In this way, every sentient being will fall into evil karma, unable to attain liberation, and Pāpīyas will be satisfied and pleased. For specifics, compare the section on the fifty skandha-māras in the Śūraṅgama Sūtra.