Can One Who Is Not a Suitable Vessel for the Path Become a Suitable Vessel for the Path?

The so-called vessel refers to a container that holds things; this thing can be material, or it can be wisdom, thought, and concepts. In the Buddha-Dharma, "vessel" refers to the latter—that is, a suitable vessel for the Path (道器)， meaning the degree to which one can contain the Path of the Buddha-Dharma. Many people, due to insufficient merit (puṇya) accumulated over beginningless kalpas, have inadequate accumulated experience and cannot accept dharmas beyond their own cognition; hence it is said that such people have poor spiritual faculties (indriya) and are unsuited to studying deeper dharmas.

So if someone is a non-vessel, are they truly a non-vessel, incapable of being transformed into a vessel? No dharma is a fixed dharma; there is no dharma that remains forever unchanged. When causes, conditions, and the season ripen, any dharma will change. Some non-vessels conceal a great vessel within them; as long as the obstructions are skillfully removed and the causes and conditions are gathered together, a non-vessel will become a great vessel. Even stone can be turned into gold—let alone a person who is a non-vessel. How could the capacity of one's mind and one's mental disposition be fixed and unchanging?

To be honest, sentient beings were originally all non-vessels. For beginningless kalpas they willingly sank in the bitter ocean of birth and death, not wanting to awaken at all, unable to accept any dharma whatsoever. It was the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas who secretly planted the seeds of dharma in sentient beings and prompted the causes and conditions to ripen early, so that sentient beings gradually became vessels capable of containing the Buddha-Dharma. In the beginning, all sentient beings grasp the five aggregates (pañcaskandha) as a self, so firmly that they cannot be loosened. With respect to the Small Vehicle's dharma of non-self, all sentient beings are non-vessels. But should one refrain from teaching the Small Vehicle's principle of eliminating self-view (ātma-dṛṣṭi) simply because sentient beings are non-vessels? Of course not. The Buddha spent twelve years fashioning sentient beings into vessels, and countless sentient beings realized the fourth fruit of the great arhat—among them were the non-vessel followers of external paths. Thus whether one is a vessel or a non-vessel also depends on the polisher's wisdom and the skill of the polishing. Those who do not understand the method of polishing often polish a vessel into a non-vessel and destroy the vessel altogether.

There is a saying in the Buddha-Dharma: teaching profound dharma to a non-vessel will cause the other person to be unable to believe and accept it, giving rise to words and deeds of slander. This saying was first spoken by the Buddha, who worried that sentient beings would slander the dharma and create evil karma, thereby undergoing retribution of long-kalpa suffering in hell. The Buddha is compassionate toward sentient beings, but the Buddha also possesses great wisdom; therefore this saying of the Buddha is not a dead dogma—it is applied flexibly according to the person and the time.

Mañjuśrī Bodhisattva, of great wisdom, was exceptionally adept at flexible application. He once taught the great dharma of prajñā to five hundred bhikṣus who were of Small Vehicle faculties, and because these five hundred bhikṣus did not believe this great dharma, upon the end of their lives they all fell into hell. Someone asked Mañjuśrī Bodhisattva: "You clearly knew this would be the outcome—why then did you still teach the great dharma of prajñā to these five hundred bhikṣus?" Mañjuśrī Bodhisattva replied: "Because I knew that after they entered hell, they would reflect upon the reason they fell into hell—namely, that they did not believe in the great dharma of prajñā. From this they would know how powerful the great dharma of prajñā truly is, and their hearts would be filled with solemn reverence. With sincere repentance, they would emerge from hell. After emerging from hell, they would first be reborn in the heavens, then return to the human world, encounter the great dharma of prajñā, and then have the opportunity to cultivate and study prajñā. Their wisdom would advance rapidly, and before long they would realize the Mahāyāna bodhi, shortening the kalpas of cultivation and attaining buddhahood ahead of time."

Truly worthy of being an equal-enlightenment bodhisattva (sāmaya-sambodhi-sattva)—with great wisdom he forcibly forged a non-vessel into a great vessel. Mañjuśrī Bodhisattva is a master craftsman at polishing non-vessels, with extraordinary wisdom. His dharma eye sees through the causes and conditions of countless kalpas: he first destroys the non-vessel, and after melting it down, directly fashions it into a great vessel—equivalent to dismantling an unusable non-vessel object and reassembling it into a usable vessel. How fortunate the five hundred bhikṣus were to encounter Mañjuśrī Bodhisattva! Without great merit, how could such a great cause and condition ever be encountered? Had they met a wisdomless venerable (ācārya) who kept his mouth shut and never mentioned Mahāyāna prajñā, the fate of the five hundred bhikṣus would never have had such a great turning point. In summary: vessel or non-vessel—no dharma is a fixed dharma. If one encounters wholesome conditions, even a non-vessel becomes a vessel.