To be a true Buddhist practitioner, you must adhere to any precepts you may have received. This is true no matter which sect you follow within the Theravada, Mahayana, or Vajrayana, AND you need to abide by all of the precepts, not just the ones you want to keep. Otherwise you are not a Buddhist and won’t be able to reap all the benefits of correct practice. Even though the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas and the Dharma Protectors are very powerful and extremely compassionate they cannot help you if you continue to do bad things and break any of the precepts. This is true for laypeople, monastics, rinpoches, dharma kings and dharma masters. You should not follow masters whose conduct does not correspond to the precepts. If you do break the precepts, you must correct your behavior immediately. Even though there are mantras that you can chant to raise the deceased to a higher realm of existence, you cannot use this dharma to intentionally or carelessly kill living beings. Six of the thirty-eight evil views are directly related to keeping the precepts while others indirectly support the importance of following the rules laid down by Shakyamuni Buddha. If you want to become accomplished and realize the goal of having perfect good fortune and wisdom and escape samsara or the suffering of life and death, you must keep the precepts. Otherwise your practice will yield no results and your precious human life will be lived in vain. You cannot develop your concentration when you are still breaking the precepts and you cannot develop your wisdom without concentration.
Evil View No. 3: Acknowledging that one may violate the precepts of the three vehicles. Those with this view think that it is permissible to violate the precepts of the Three Vehicles that they have received. They think that under certain karmic conditions or with a special dharma practice it is acceptable to deviate from the precepts of the Three Vehicles. You must bear in mind that no matter what the circumstances may be, the precepts of the Three Vehicles may not be violated. Everyone, including eminent monastics and holy dharma kings, must strictly adhere to those precepts. Otherwise, one is a heretic in the guise of a Buddhist practitioner.
Evil View No. 5: Acknowledging that one need not abide by all of the precepts one has received. As long as you received a precept, you must abide by it fully. You must abide by each and every precept you received. It is unacceptable to think that you may just abide by one of them or some of them and need not abide by certain others. Any thinking that not all precepts must be observed is not only wrong but also evil.
Evil View No. 11: Acknowledging that by relying on the power of a Buddha, one can do bad things yet be free of sin. Those with this view think that due to the power generated from their own dharma practice, they are already blessed by the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas in the ten directions. They think that they can do something bad and still be free of sin because the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas will come and eliminate their sin right away.
Evil View No. 20: Acknowledging that it is not a sin to kill a living being so long as one chants the mantra to raise the consciousness of the deceased. Those with this view think that by chanting the Mantra to Raise the Deceased they can raise deceased beings to higher realms of existence, including those beings they killed or any other deceased being. They think that as long as the being has died, they can raise that deceased being to a higher realm by chanting the Mantra to Raise the Deceased. As such, they think that no problems will remain. However, if you chant the Mantra to Raise the Deceased as you purposefully kill a living being, you will not be able to raise that being to a higher realm of existence, and you will have committed an extremely large sin. Therefore, those who chant the Mantra to Raise the Deceased while killing a living being will experience no resulting increase in merit. The only result will be an increase in their dark karma.
See also article on “Who Is a Worthy Master?“ for more related Evil Views on masters who do not keep the precepts.
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