How to Distinguish Between Good Spiritual Teachers and Bad Spiritual Teachers

For a monastic master or a teacher, one should not use the term "evil teacher" (kalyāṇamitra's opposite) to describe them. The truly evil—real evil—should be like the intent of Māra Pāpīyas: deliberately misleading sentient beings, not allowing them to walk the right path and attain liberation. When ordinary people expound the Dharma, it is merely because their wisdom is insufficient and their level of cultivation and realization is limited; they do not intentionally lead sentient beings astray onto wrong paths, and they have no evil intent. The only one with evil intent is Māra Pāpīyas, who fears and hates those who rescue sentient beings and those who have hope of attaining liberation. Some people lack wisdom yet love to expound the Dharma because of afflictions in their own minds—they want to prove themselves capable and make sentient beings admire and worship them. But there are also many who, seeing the suffering of sentient beings, resolve to help them become liberated from afflictions; yet because their wisdom is limited and they themselves lack realization, they are unable to lead sentient beings to cultivate in accordance with reality.

As long as one's resolve is not evil, one cannot be labeled an evil teacher. Most people who expound the Dharma can still benefit sentient beings in various different ways; even though they have not seen their true mind and attained enlightenment, the foundational Buddhadharma still depends on these people to be transmitted. In the Sahā world, there are not so many bodhisattvas who have truly seen their 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. The number of bodhisattvas is already very small, so it is impossible to insist on using great talent for petty purposes and wasting the bodhisattvas' resources.

Since we have already studied and cultivated the Buddhadharma, we should learn from the Buddha and should not speak offensively; we should respect all Dharma teachers and teachers. As for their expounding the Buddhadharma incorrectly, this is unavoidable—only the Buddha alone expounds the Dharma without error, and all bodhisattvas may possibly expound the Buddhadharma 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 expounding the Dharma. If a bodhisattva is a good teacher after their wisdom has advanced, then they were an evil teacher before—would this not mean that all bodhisattvas, including those at the stage of equal enlightenment, are evil teachers?

In fact, the only truly evil one is Pāpīyas. Pāpīyas has already vowed before the Buddha that during the Dharma-ending age he will infiltrate Buddhism to destroy the Buddhadharma, so that no sentient beings can attain liberation. Now Pāpīyas has come, disguised as a good teacher, and moreover makes people feel that he is especially good. Who can open their eyes and see through Pāpīyas' 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 fallen for beginningless kalpas into the abyss of afflictions, unable to extricate themselves, and all rely on the majestic virtue of the Buddhas and bodhisattvas to be rescued and drawn out. If a so-called good teacher not only does not help sentient beings eliminate afflictions, but deliberately adds afflictions to sentient beings—making them constantly crave worldly things, constantly grasp at worldly dharmas, constantly grow their anger, and constantly engage in evil strife—then the result is that sentient beings become even more unable to extricate themselves, sinking in birth and death; not only can they not distance themselves from the afflictions of the three realms, they cannot even eliminate or reduce the afflictions of the desire realm. If anyone has hope of escaping the desire realm, this is what gives Pāpīyas the greatest headache—he can no longer sit still in his demon palace and will certainly find ways to hold back and obstruct this person, making them give rise to greed and hatred and commit various sinful karmic deeds; such a person will remain in the desire realm or even in the three evil paths, under Pāpīyas' control. Therefore, one criterion for judging whether a person is a good teacher or an evil teacher is to see whether they deliberately instill the afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion into sentient beings, causing them to widely form evil karmic connections; entangled by evil karma, they will be unable to escape the desire realm and the three evil paths, and Pāpīyas' descendants will grow ever more numerous, never decreasing.

Evil teachers often seek to destroy the Three Jewels at their very root, wrecking Buddhism and 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 belittling the image of the Buddha and belittling the image of the Saṅgha. Then he will find ways to prevent sentient beings from studying and cultivating the true Buddhadharma, preventing them from actual practice and realization. He will cleverly prevent sentient beings from cultivating the bodhisattva's six perfections and from cultivating precepts, samādhi, and wisdom, so that all sentient beings are unable to attain realization, cannot truly eliminate the self-view (ātma-dṛṣṭi), and cannot truly see their true mind. Moreover, he will deliberately make sentient beings commit the karma of great false speech, so that each and every one will believe themselves to be true bodhisattvas while everyone else is a demon son or demon grandson. In this way, every sentient being will be trapped in 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.