And are you saying we should force others to drop their
beliefs?
I understand what you are talking about, and I am aware that
Bodhisattvas manifest fearful forms to reform sentient beings. My
dharma teacher too does that in very rare cases before (maybe once
or twice), although most of the time she is compassionate looking,
masters does that (not only Vajrayana), and that is skillful means.
Of course though, if in the process of scolding the student, he/she
becomes attached and becomes really angry, then he/she is not a
true master. Because a true master, whatever form he/she manifest,
is always compassionate at heart. My dharma teacher for instance,
while she was scolding her daughter at a distance, would scold, and
turn back and talk to her maid in a perfectly cool and happy
manner, and the maid thought she was crazy because who would
actually be cool and next moment angry and next moment cool. In
reality a bodhisattva is not at all angry or etc, when conditions
are there, he manifest in an approapriate manner to treat sentient
beings. There is no 'anger' involved.
Sorry, back to topic. Skillful means of course, implies, that it is
linked to wisdom. Without wisdom how can you have skillful means?
Without wisdom, action is unskillful. Skillful means like wrathful
form definitely works when a student has committed an offense
against precepts, or in any way, having shown imperfectness that
needs to be 'reformed', or his ego is too big, he needs someone to
give him a scolding. Ego can serve as an obstruction from
attainment. True masters doesn't need to be nice, he/she can be the
ego's nightmare.
However, that is definitely not the way to be used to deal with
people from lets say.. I Kuan Dao. That would be the most
unskillful means. That is definitely not going to work for trying
to bring across the message of Buddhism to someone who hasn't even
stepped into Buddhism. But rather, that would certainly scare them
away. That is equated to hard core evangelism and the kind of
fundamentalistic extremist sort of behavior. The kind of people
that everyone resent very much. Religious freedom and tolerance is
a very very basic thing, something that even God-based religions
like Islam or Christianity has adopted. Few days ago, I was
discussing this video with my friend: I Am A God
Warrior!!! Really crazy. If people do not tolerate other
people's beliefs, then the world will be a terrible place to live
in. Don't forget that some fundamentalistic Christians, Muslims,
also think that Buddhism destroys the spiritual health of their
followers, and employ extremistic means of converting others. That
is why we have hard core evangelists and terrorists. I believe
everyone should exercise their spirit of inquiry and free will in
regards to matters like Religion.
This is definitely against Buddhism's spirit of free inquiry. All
we can do is to promote Buddhism through teaching, not forceful
methods that other religions have used. I do not believe Buddhism
is pessimistic and passive, because Buddhism (at least recently)
has been doing a lot to educate people of the teachings of
Buddhism. But to spread our teachings through force is another
extreme. Remember the teaching of Buddha, "Middle-way".
