Can a non-vessel become a vessel?

The so-called "vessel" refers to a container for holding things; the thing held can be material, or it can be wisdom, thought, and concepts. In Buddhist teachings, "vessel" refers to the latter—that is, a suitable vessel for the Path, meaning the capacity to receive the Buddha's Way. Many people, due to insufficient merit accumulated over beginningless kalpas, have inadequate accumulated experience and cannot accept dharma beyond their own cognition; hence it is said that such people have poor indriya and are not suited to studying deeper dharma.

So is a non-vessel truly a non-vessel, incapable of being transformed into a vessel? Dharma has no fixed dharma; no dharma is forever unchanging. When causes, conditions, and the right time arrive, any dharma will change. Some non-vessels secretly conceal a great vessel within; as long as the obstructions are skillfully removed and the causes and conditions are gathered together, the non-vessel will become a great vessel. Even a stone can be turned into gold—let alone a person who is a non-vessel. How could the breadth of mind and 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 saṃsāra and karma, not wishing to awaken at all, unable to accept any dharma. It was the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas who secretly planted the seeds of dharma in sentient beings and further prompted the causes and conditions to ripen early, so that sentient beings gradually became vessels capable of receiving the Buddha-dharma. Sentient beings initially all grasp the five aggregates (pañca-skandha) as the self, so firmly that they cannot be loosened. With respect to the non-self dharma of the Small Vehicle, all sentient beings are non-vessels; but should one refrain from teaching the Small Vehicle principle of eradicating the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi-prahāṇa) just because sentient beings are non-vessels? Of course not. The Buddha spent twelve years forging sentient beings into vessels, and countless sentient beings attained the fourth fruit of the great arhat, including the non-vessel followers of non-Buddhist paths. Thus whether one is a vessel or a non-vessel also depends on the wisdom and polishing skill of the polisher. One who does not understand the method of polishing will often polish a vessel into a non-vessel, destroying the vessel.

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

The greatly wise Bodhisattva Mañjuśrī was extremely adept at flexible application. He once taught the great prajñā dharma to five hundred bhikṣus of Small Vehicle indriya, and because these five hundred bhikṣus did not believe in this great dharma, upon death they all fell into hell. Someone asked Bodhisattva Mañjuśrī: "You clearly knew this would be the outcome—why then did you still teach the great prajñā dharma to these five hundred bhikṣus?" Bodhisattva Mañjuśrī replied: "Because I knew that after they entered hell, they would reflect on the reason they fell into hell—namely, their disbelief in the great prajñā dharma. Thereby they would know how powerful the great prajñā dharma truly is, feel solemn reverence in their hearts, sincerely repent, and thus emerge from hell. After emerging from hell, they would first ascend to the heavens, then return to the human world, encounter the great prajñā dharma, and then have the opportunity to study and practice prajñā. Their wisdom would advance rapidly, and before long they would attain Mahāyāna bodhi, shortening the kalpas of cultivation and attaining buddhahood ahead of time."

Truly worthy of being an equal-enlightenment bodhisattva—using great wisdom to forge a non-vessel into a great vessel by sheer force. Bodhisattva Mañjuśrī is a master craftsman at polishing non-vessels, with extraordinary wisdom; His dharma eye penetrates the causes and conditions of immeasurable kalpas. He first destroys the non-vessel, and after melting it down, directly forges 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 Bodhisattva Mañjuśrī! Unless one were a being of great merit, how could one encounter such a great cause and condition? Had they encountered a wisdomless venerable who kept silent and never mentioned Mahāyāna prajñā, the fate of the five hundred bhikṣus would never have undergone such a great turn. In summary: vessel or non-vessel—dharma has no fixed dharma; if one encounters wholesome conditions, even a non-vessel becomes a vessel.