A person who has a shallow kensho experience and thinks he's qualified to be a master is endangering himself and others. It must be made clear to the person that he has to continue working hard in his practice. He is still featherless.

The second way for a master to help this person is to remind him of the five main precepts of Buddhism: no killing, no stealing, no sexual misconduct, no false speech (lying, talking behind people's backs, or falsely claiming you are a master), and not indulging in intoxicants.

A deeply enlightened master need not pay attention to the precepts, because his wisdom and samadhi power are never apart from the precepts. There is no need to add any rules. For the person who has just had a kensho experience, however, the precepts are like the nest which protects the baby bird, and it would be as dangerous for the person to leave the precepts as it would for the bird to leave the nest.

There are practices which seem to contradict this. Have you heard about certain Buddhists groups where monks drink alcohol, calling it "wisdom soup?"

Student: I've heard of something like that. The word is upaya. It means that expedient methods, which can include acts of misbehavior, are justifiable if it is done for the good of the student. As I understand it, the idea is to break the narrow conception of the student. One master, for example, would eat hamburgers in front of his students if they became too attached to the idea of not eating meat.

Shih-fu: