How to Appropriately Deal with Evil Individuals?

In the secular world, there is always debate about whether human nature is inherently good or evil, with arguments persisting endlessly. From a Buddhist perspective, this issue ceases to be problematic. Clearly, if human nature were inherently good, there would be no sentient beings in the Three Evil Realms. If human nature were inherently good, sentient beings would not suffer from the three poisons of greed, hatred, and delusion. Society would not witness so many serious crimes, and prisons would not hold so many people. Moreover, many individuals repeatedly enter prison without repentance. Even celestial beings (devas) do not all possess entirely good minds; they too experience afflictions, particularly delusion, which is an immense affliction. Sentient beings without afflictions would not undergo rebirth. As long as there is rebirth, there are afflictions. Human nature is predominantly evil with little good; some individuals possess no goodness at all.

Why is human nature inherently evil? Because of ignorance (avidyā). This ignorance is innate from the very existence of sentient beings; it is not acquired later. Due to ignorance, all sentient beings create unwholesome karma, leading to countless kalpas upon countless kalpas of birth, death, and rebirth. Each sentient being spends the vast majority of kalpas within the Three Evil Realms. The time spent existing with a human body in the human realm constitutes merely one percent, one-thousandth, one-ten-thousandth, or even less of their entire life stream. Some beings in the animal realm have never obtained a human body at all, never having left the animal realm. These are beings of extreme delusion, and delusion is evil.

Those who have just been reborn as humans after emerging from the Three Evil Realms throughout beginningless kalpas are extremely deluded and wicked, utterly incompatible with human nature. Their minds are very similar to those of animals, very much aligned with them. Some possess only delusion; others are both deluded and cruel, addicted to killing. As long as they live among humans, they will harm others; harming others is their nature. The propensity to kill and harm is their animalistic nature. For such individuals to develop human nature and goodness, they can only do so by being repeatedly reborn in the human realm over many lifetimes and kalpas, continuously imbued with wholesome dharmas while among humans. Only then can they gradually eradicate their animalistic evil tendencies and adopt human habits. Although human habits are not entirely good, they are still better than animalistic nature. Through this process of cultivation over countless lifetimes, they finally attain a sound personality and perfect human nature.

However, during this process, many people will be brutally harmed or killed by these individuals. When good people coexist with evil people, it is invariably the good who suffer and lose out. This is the eternal rule in the Dharma realm: when good and evil people live together, it is always the evil who commit evil deeds, while the good must endure the evil of the wicked. Those who constantly cause trouble and incidents are mostly evil people, those at the bottom; those with problems are always those without cultivation. Because good people do not create unwholesome karma, or at least not major unwholesome karma, and do not intentionally harm others, they can only be harmed. Evil people inevitably create unwholesome karma and will certainly harm others; their original nature cannot be changed initially. So, if these evil individuals commit extremely grave unwholesome karma, should their lives be taken to prevent them from continuing to harm others, or should their lives be spared so they can continue to be imbued with wholesome dharmas among humans?

Both choices have advantages and disadvantages. If their lives are spared, others will continue to be harmed and killed, posing a threat to other lives. If the lives of the evil are taken, preventing them from harming their kind, these evil individuals will lose the opportunity to be imbued with wholesome dharmas. Their evil nature will have no chance for correction, and the evolution of their minds will be hindered. This is also a significant loss. Regarding this matter, what is the best course of action? Is there a better way for good and evil people to each find their place and coexist peacefully? In the Land of Ultimate Bliss, how does Amitābha Buddha manage good and evil people?

The solution is that like attracts like, and people group together by kind. Good people and evil people must be separated. Sentient beings of different levels and attributes must all be separated; they cannot live together mixed. This is the rule throughout the Dharma realm, just as the Land of Ultimate Bliss and other Buddha-lands are separated from Buddha-lands like the Sahā world. The minds of beings in these two worlds are different; they cannot connect and cannot live together mixed, to avoid trouble. Sentient beings exist at many levels; the thoughts and views of beings at each level are diverse and vastly different, impossible to unify or harmonize. Mixed living leads to constant disputes; separating them eliminates the problems.

Buddhist precepts also require this, adhering to the principle of "same precepts, same practice." Those who observe different precepts cannot live together. Monastics and laypeople cannot live together mixed. Similarly, monastics with different precepts and practices cannot live together. Laypeople with different precepts and practices should also avoid living together as much as possible; otherwise, there will be trouble, violating the Buddha's precepts. In the secular world, groups generally form automatically along these lines. Differences in merit, wisdom, social status, cultivation, and quality generally lead to separate living arrangements, not cohabitation. Criminals and evil people are imprisoned, isolated from those who have not committed crimes. Overall, sentient beings are divided into the Six Realms based on their karma and mental disposition, ensuring good and evil beings do not live together.