The Types of Stolen Objects

The question of what constitutes the contents of stealing is very complex. The more modernized society becomes, the more self-centered people are, and the more possessions sentient beings have—things unimaginable in the past are now all owned. These possessions refer not only to material form (rūpa) that the eyes can see and the body can touch, but also to formless and immaterial dharmas that the eyes cannot see and the body cannot touch, such as dharmas resembling information. In fact, the scope of what can be stolen is extremely broad, encompassing all dharmas of the five aggregates (pañcaskandha) and the eighteen realms: the aggregate of form (rūpa), the aggregate of feeling (vedanā), the aggregate of perception (saṃjñā), the aggregate of formations (saṃskāra), and the aggregate of consciousness (vijñāna); the six sense bases (ṣaḍāyatana), the six sense objects, and the six consciousnesses—covering all material form, mental dharmas, dharmas that are neither material nor mental, as well as the mind and its mental factors. If one were to enumerate them one by one in detail, they would be simply countless. The dharmas that can be stolen and those that are stolen all belong to the dharmas within one's own five aggregates and eighteen realms, and are one's personal property. If someone forcibly takes them for themselves without the owner's consent, that is stealing.

The more advanced technology becomes in modern society, the more dharmas there are that can be stolen and that are stolen—things people in ancient times would not even dare to imagine. In ancient times, even if someone committed theft, they would steal property, or at most steal a person; these were all solid, tangible objects. Nowadays, fewer and fewer people steal tangible hardware, while more and more steal intangible software. Below, let us enumerate them one by one. Although they cannot be counted exhaustively or listed completely, a rough categorization can help Buddhist practitioners examine and reflect upon themselves, engage in self-inspection and self-reflection, and repent in a timely manner, so as to eliminate some karmic offenses as much as possible, remove obstacles on the path of cultivation, turn away from evil and toward goodness, and reform the past while cultivating the future.

Regarding the precept against stealing among the five precepts, the dharmas that can be stolen and that are stolen can be divided into the following categories: the first is tangible, material form; the second is intangible yet substantive form; the third is formless and non-substantive dharmas that are neither material nor mental; the fourth is mental dharmas (citta-dharma); and the fifth is mental factors (caitta-dharma).

The first category is tangible, substantive material objects that the eyes can see, the body can touch, the ears can hear, the nose can smell, and the tongue can taste—these are money, jewels, and various objects, all of which are material form, including the five-aggregate bodies and organs of humans and animals, as well as corpses and so on. Everyone can clearly understand these.

The second category is intangible yet substantive form, which the eyes cannot see, the ears cannot hear, the nose cannot smell, and the tongue cannot taste, but which the body can touch, and which the mind consciousness and manas can perceive—for example, the magnetic field contained within the human body, and the energy fields, auras, and the like that cultivators develop through practice. A magnetic field is an invisible material energy. Every living being has a different magnetic field, and its influence on people also differs, with attributes of mutual generation and mutual restraint. Without the person's knowledge and permission, to secretly steal another person's exceptional magnetic field energy to nourish oneself also counts as stealing. Not only magnetic fields, but also vitality, energy, essence, qi, spirit, and so on—to seize and appropriate them without authorization all constitutes stealing. For example, extracting another person's essence to replenish one's own qi, or "drawing yin to supplement yang," and the like, all belong to stealing.

The third category of formless and non-substantive dharmas includes: reputation, honor, power, status, merit, image, moral character, patent rights, trademark rights, time, secrets, autonomy, the right to make choices, the right to vote, and all other such rights and interests. Taking the fruits of another's labor as one's own—such as monographs, papers, patents, inventions and creations, ideas, designs, and so on—may need to be divided into many subcategories; different kinds have different ownership.

The fourth category is mental dharmas: a thieving mind, deceiving others' feelings, deluding others' first seven consciousnesses to fraudulently gain their trust, taking what others cherish as one's own, taking the dharmas that others see, hear, perceive, and know as one's own, as well as using means to make others develop illusions, misunderstandings, and misinterpretations in what they see, hear, perceive, and know.

The fifth category is mental factors: contact (sparśa), attention (manaskāra), feeling (vedanā), perception (saṃjñā), volition (cetanā), desire (chanda), determination (adhimokṣa), mindfulness (smṛti), concentration (samādhi), wisdom (prajñā), and the eleven wholesome factors. For example, suppressing another person's feelings, depriving another person of their thoughts, making decisions and choices on another's behalf, taking another person's ideas and views as one's own, and so on.