What Kind of Person Is a Qualified Buddhist Disciple

In school, a qualified student is certainly a "three-good student" who develops comprehensively in virtue, intelligence, and physical fitness. In Buddhism, a good disciple of the Buddha should be a Buddhist disciple who develops comprehensively in precepts, meditative concentration (samādhi), and wisdom, and who is endowed with the six pāramitās in full—a practitioner in whom ability and disposition of mind are perfectly combined. A person possessing both virtue and talent is a very rare and precious talent, extremely scarce. If someone has only a certain ability but his disposition of mind is unwholesome and unyielding, such a person cannot be given important responsibilities. If his disposition is good but his ability is insufficient, he can still be used reluctantly and be cultivated. If both his ability and his disposition of mind are inadequate, he must resolutely not be used.

Disposition of mind is manifested in the matter of self. Before eliminating self-view (ātma-dṛṣṭi), some people have a heavy self-nature, while others have a light self-nature. Those with a slight self-nature can certainly eliminate self-view and realize the fruits of the path more easily than those with a heavy self-nature. One who always wants to control and dominate others is a person with a heavy self-nature; one who is unwilling to be managed and unwilling to obey leadership is also a person with a heavy self-nature. Their disposition of mind is not harmonious—all of this is the mind of self at work.

People with a slight self-nature are relatively easygoing and agreeable, holding an indifferent attitude toward certain people and affairs, not caring much about their own position and power. In a group, those who cause the most problems are precisely these people with heavy self-nature. If there is no strong leader, the group will fall into complete chaos.

A Buddhist group certainly has Dharma-protecting deities upholding it. The Dharma-protecting deities know each person's disposition of mind perfectly well—what disposition this person has, what purpose he harbors, what role he can play; the Dharma-protecting deities are clear about all of it. Therefore, what role a person should assume in the group will be managed by the Dharma-protecting deities. Some people have heavy selfish motives and would have a destructive effect on the group; the Dharma-protecting deities will find ways to remove and isolate them.