Why Is Slandering the Three Jewels the Greatest Offense?

All Buddhist sūtras are the true words of the Buddha; the Buddha does not deceive sentient beings. Many people feel that any casual remark they make commenting on the Three Jewels is nothing serious, no big deal—but the weight of such a remark may be considerable, and one is often unaware of it. A single wholesome thought is a cause for rebirth in the heavens to enjoy pleasures; a single evil thought is a cause for falling into hell. Words and deeds directed toward the Three Jewels of Buddha, Dharma, and Saṅgha carry especially great weight, unlike words and deeds in worldly affairs. If a single utterance damages or slanders the Three Jewels—whether truthful or untruthful—it is a cause for rebirth in hell.

A single discordant utterance is called divisive speech (two-tongued speech); sowing discord that disrupts the harmony of the Saṅgha, or the harmonious relationships among monastics, among laypeople, or between monastics and laypeople—all are causes for rebirth in hell. The mouth creates the most karma. To avoid reaping evil consequences, one should guard well the karma of speech and beware of disaster issuing from the mouth. When there is nothing to say, do not speak; when there is something to address, speak little and speak well; avoid stirring up trouble and creating disputes out of nothing. In this way one keeps oneself pure and leaves no faults behind—this is the conduct of the wise and intelligent. The opposite is the behavior of foolish people burdened with deep afflictions.

Slander is divided into baseless slander and grounded slander; "ground" means evidence and fact. To say something exists when it does not, or to say something does not exist when it does, distorting the facts—this is baseless slander. When the matter is real and what is said is factual, this is grounded slander. With respect to the Three Jewels, both cases count as slander, and the offense is very grave. Speaking of the faults and wrongs of monastics is a great sin; even if the matter is true, whether deliberately or carelessly telling it to others is a sin, and maliciously publicizing it is an even greater sin.

Why is the karma created toward the Three Jewels the heaviest of all? Because the Three Jewels bestow the greatest kindness upon sentient beings in the world, possess the greatest merit, can bring sentient beings to liberation, enable them to leave suffering and attain bliss, and are sentient beings' supreme field of merit. To commit evil deeds within one's own field of merit naturally carries the gravest offense and the greatest impact. If, because of one's slander, sentient beings lose faith in the Three Jewels, it is tantamount to cutting off their path to liberation—a sin surely heavier than any other. In the secular world, doing evil to someone who has been kind to oneself is despised and rejected by people; how much more so doing evil toward the Three Jewels, which can bring one the merit of liberation over countless kalpas—how could such a sin be small?

Everyone who commits evil deeds does so because of afflictions, because of the presence of "self" in the mind. Greed, hatred, delusion, arrogance, and doubt: because there is greed in the mind, one commits evil deeds when greed goes unfulfilled, when one cannot obtain what one desires; because there is hatred in the mind, one becomes hateful when things do not go one's way; because the mind is often deluded, not knowing what is wholesome or unwholesome, true or false, good or bad (kuśala-akuśala, satya-mithyā, śubha-aśubha), one commits evil deeds out of ignorance; because the "self" in the mind blazes fiercely and cannot be contained, it erupts, trampling others, and one commits evil deeds; because there is doubt in the mind, unable to determine the causality of good and evil, one commits evil deeds.

All evil deeds are committed because of the self; all afflictions arise because of the self. The self is the chief culprit. It prevents self-view (ātma-dṛṣṭi) from being eliminated, makes the three evil destinies unavoidable, and brings endless suffering and distress. Therefore every Dharma learner should make a great resolve: one must subdue that chief culprit and destroy that chief culprit; only then can one leave suffering and attain bliss, only then can one's own mind be at peace, and only then can the world be at peace. Thus eliminating self-view (ahaṃkāra-mamakāra-parityāga) can bring blessings to the whole world and confer blessings upon sentient beings, yet the greatest beneficiary is still oneself. Although there is no longer a "self," it is precisely without a self that things are truly good.