Guiding Sentient Beings Through Unfavorable Karmic Conditions
In guiding violent and evil beings, beyond considering their own good roots, you must also take into account one crucial factor: the karmic connection between you and them.
In guiding violent and evil beings, beyond considering their own good roots, you must also take into account one crucial factor: the karmic connection between you and them.
When we practice the Sevenfold Cause-and-Effect Contemplation, today we generate the mind of great compassion toward sentient beings by first establishing a relationship with them: you contemplate that across countless kalpas, every being has been your mother, and therefore you should equally arouse the wish to rescue and guide them. However, the actual practice of guiding all sentient beings unfolds in a sequence, as Master Tsongkhapa explains. To put this aspiration into action, there is a progression:
First, guide those with whom you have karmic affinity; second, guide those without such affinity; third, guide those with whom you have adverse karmic connections. So if this violent and evil being has an affinity with you, you can guide them. Though they may be violent and evil, because you share a connection, they will accept what you say.
Consider Sui Yangdi—a man notorious for his wickedness. But did you know that at one point, Sui Yangdi was actually a very diligent practitioner of the Dharma? Before ascending to the throne, he held the title of Prince of Jin; his personal name was Yang Guang. While he was still Prince of Jin, he received the Bodhisattva Precepts from Master Zhiyi, who also gave him the Dharma name Zongchi, saying: "Your Highness should follow the sacred teachings; you truly deserve the name Zongchi, for as a sovereign you hold the Buddhist teachings in your grasp." This was, of course, an encouragement. Prince Yang Guang responded to Master Zhiyi with his own words: "You, Master, transmit the lamp of the Buddha's teachings; you deserve to be called 'Zhiyi.'" Thus, Master Zhiyi's title "Zhiyi" was actually a name bestowed upon him by Prince Yang Guang.
In reading Master Zhiyi's biography, I noted that it records how greatly Prince Yang Guang esteemed the Master. When Prince Yang Guang was close to Master Zhiyi, he consulted the Master on many important matters. And when Master Zhiyi sent him letters, though he held the exalted rank of Prince, he read his master's letters on his knees—truly so. Yet after Master Zhiyi passed away, his disciple no longer lived up to the example. Prince Yang Guang later became emperor, and history records that Sui Yangdi caused the death of his father, Emperor Wen of the Sui, with a hint of usurping the throne. He did not govern well, indulging his personal desires instead, and after only a brief reign he passed away.
Reflecting on this history, I think: had Master Zhiyi lived a few more years, the trajectory of the Sui dynasty might well have been different. What this shows is that even a person with a violent and evil nature can still be guided—his good roots drawn forth, his evil roots suppressed—if there is a virtuous friend capable of guiding him. In other words, if you share a karmic connection with him, he will actually listen to what you say.
This precept means that even though a being may have been violently evil in the past, or may still be heavily burdened with afflictions now, if they share a karmic affinity with you from previous lives, then the various teachings and methods of guidance you offer will benefit them. You should not give up on them.
Even if you share no karmic connection with them, you should not harbor a mind of rejection or anger. You may quietly offer your blessings for them, for without an affinity, it is truly very difficult to guide them. Karmic affinity between people cannot be forced. If you have no connection with someone and insist on guiding them, your efforts may produce only half the result for double the effort.
But the meaning of this precept is this: even if you share no affinity with such a person, you should still extend goodwill toward them. You may temporarily refrain from taking action, and that is acceptable. However, you must never harbor a mind of aversion or anger to punish them, causing them to abandon and turn away from the Three Jewels and the Dharma assembly. This is what this precept means.