Losing a Lawsuit over Unjust Seizure Is Also Stealing

If someone fights a lawsuit to seize land without justification and wins the case, do the judge and the lawyers bear guilt and karmic consequences? They certainly do bear guilt and must bear the karmic consequences. Seizing land that one is not entitled to from others constitutes robbery and theft, and the judge and lawyers are tantamount to accomplices; this karmic consequence is considerable.

Even if a judge's ruling appears fair and reasonable from the perspective of the worldly realm, it is not necessarily fair and reasonable for both parties in the lawsuit. Things that are unreasonable in the worldly realm may have a reasonable side, and things that are reasonable in the worldly realm may have an unreasonable side, because they involve disputes carried over from past lives and the relationship of karmic retribution and repayment. For example, suppose we now see A slap B, but we did not see that B had earlier slapped A; we would then consider A's slapping of B to be unreasonable and go criticize A. Only by viewing the whole matter connected from beginning to end can one know whether it is reasonable; judging from only an incomplete side of the matter leads to mistaken judgment.

The precepts, however, are judged according to phenomena in the present life, without taking into account karmic cause-and-effect left over from past lives; they require Buddhist disciples to maintain a pure mind and keep the precepts under all circumstances. Tax evasion is originally a matter of worldly law—tax law is secular law—yet the Buddhist precepts also touch upon it, requiring Buddhists, and even monastics, to abide by the laws and regulations of the secular world and not violate the rules and regulations of the state and of each region. Therefore, when a Buddhist violates certain laws, they also simultaneously violate the Buddhist precepts. As for coercive, unequal contracts, they constitute an act of theft; according to cause and effect, such contracts do not count, and violating them breaks neither the law nor the precepts. Nowadays, coercive and unequal contracts are everywhere in the world; in every era there has been the phenomenon of the strong preying on the weak.