The Offense of Stealing the Three Treasures' Property

In a monastery, no matter whether an item is useful to the monastery or not, lay practitioners at home should never take or use it without permission, let alone casually 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 throughout the worlds of the ten directions, a debt that can never be repaid. This offense is karma leading to the hells, even the karma of the Avīci hell.

Offerings from the ten directions are offerings from sentient beings of the ten directions, namely east, south, west, north, above, below, southeast, southwest, northeast, and northwest. Sangha property of the ten directions refers to the belongings of monastics in the worlds of the ten directions. Worlds vary in size: a large world refers to the Buddha-lands surrounding the Saha world in the ten directions, while a small world refers to the worlds within the Saha world in the ten directions. For example, a small world within the Saha world's trichiliocosm (three-thousand-great-thousand-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 Paranirmita-vaśavartin Heaven, as well as the first dhyāna heaven. One thousand small worlds constitute a middle-thousand-world, and one thousand middle-thousand-worlds constitute a great-thousand-world.

Anyone who has committed this offense should earnestly repent 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 in consolation and tells you the offense has been eradicated, or you see lotus flowers blooming, or you smell fragrance in the air as Buddhas and Bodhisattvas come to bless you. Otherwise the offense remains, and at the end of your life you will fall into the hells to undergo retribution.

Deliberately or unintentionally wasting monastery property means wasting and consuming the sangha property of the ten directions; this offense is also not small, and the debt owed to the sangha of the ten directions is not easy to repay. Therefore everyone in a monastery must be frugal, must not waste, and must immediately compensate for anything damaged. 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. The same applies to 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 was of the nature of stealing, one must not only compensate, but must also strive every day in earnest repentance, seeking to see a good sign. To eliminate evil karma and avoid or reduce evil retribution, there are two ways: first, repentance; second, remedial compensation with money and property.

Everyone, whether at home, at the workplace, in a monastery, or in all public places, must clearly understand who the owner of each item is, and must not infringe upon the owner's rights of ownership. Before using something, first ask the owner. This includes the rights of your own family members—the ownership of your parents, children, and spouse—which must not be violated or offended. This is the cultivation and virtue of being a person; if you live with purity, you will surely receive pure retribution.

If a monastery deliberately places Buddhist sūtras and other dharma-gift items somewhere for distribution, those are given free of charge to everyone as connections with the dharma, and one may take them freely without informing the monastery's supervising personnel. Some items are managed by specific designated personnel; if you wish to use them, you must obtain the consent of those specific personnel. If someone is not the designated manager, even their consent does not count—taking items then constitutes stealing. One must see whether a person actually has the authority and duty; it is not acceptable to just casually find anyone to give permission.

Some lay practitioners who come to 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 authority themselves, making decisions on everything without permission, as if in their own home—not only managing affairs, but also managing money, and even managing people. This offense is extremely grave, and whether it can be repented and purified is unknown.

Some people, upon arriving at a monastery, even try to manage the monastics themselves—monastics must listen to their own 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 wishes. This is the inferior overriding the superior, despising 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 right to manage. Above all, monastics receive the education and management of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas of the ten directions; even earth spirits and other dharma-protector deities have no qualification or authority, because monastics are directly the disciples of the Buddha, not the disciples of dharma-protector deities. Monastics may only pay homage to Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, not to dharma-protector 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 to gain reverence and receive various offerings—this is theft among thefts, the greatest of thieves. There are still other lay practitioners who insist on claiming that they too are the Three Jewels and should receive the treatment accorded to the Three Jewels, infringing upon the reputation and renown of the Three Jewels. The influence is quite pernicious; this is great greed and great theft, which admits no repentance—repentance is of little use, and they will still have to report to the hells.