The Law of Cause and Effect

If a novice monk who has left home mocks an old monk who has also left home, he incurs such great evil retribution; then what evil retribution should a layperson incur for mocking a monastic? What evil retribution should a layperson incur for mocking a monastic who expounds the Dharma? What evil retribution should a layperson incur for slandering a monastic who expounds the Dharma? What evil retribution should a layperson incur for mocking a monastic who has attained the Way? What evil retribution should a layperson incur for mocking a monastic who has attained the Way and expounds the Dharma? What evil retribution should a layperson incur for slandering a monastic who has attained the Way and expounds the Dharma?

Karma and its effects are beyond the comprehension of ordinary people. If a person has a mind of arrogance and likes to mock others, no matter who the other person is, there will be evil retribution. If a person likes to lie and deceive others, saying east is west and west is east, engaging in false speech and frivolous speech—that is improper speech—no matter who the other person is, there will be evil retribution. If a person likes to berate others (except parents, teachers, and elders), regardless of seniority or rank, in order to display his own cleverness and talent, there will also be evil retribution.

In short, all ten unwholesome actions of bodily, verbal, and mental actions carry evil retribution. Therefore, in learning Buddhism one should understand karma and its effects, should uphold the precepts, should guard one's bodily, verbal, and mental actions, should discern the difference between wholesome and unwholesome, and strive to cease evil and cultivate goodness. Only when one's mental disposition is transformed and comes close to the mental disposition of the sages can one have the opportunity to become a sage. The prerequisite for becoming a sage is possessing a mental disposition close to that of the sages; only then is one qualified to become a sage.

With virtue like the Buddha's, He could entirely say that arhats, noble ones, are "withered sprouts and sterile seeds"; but anyone whose level of cultivation and realization is inferior to that of an arhat, no matter who he is, must not say this—if he says it, there will be evil retribution. The good roots of an ordinary person are not worth even a single hair of an arhat's; an ordinary person has absolutely no qualification to slander arhats as "withered sprouts and sterile seeds"—even with evidence it is not permitted, even if it is fact it is not permitted; there will certainly be evil retribution. Nor may a layperson speak ill of an ordinary monastic; that too carries evil retribution. Those of high virtue may speak of those of low virtue; those who hold the precepts may speak of those without precepts; those who received the precepts earlier may speak of those who received them later. Precepts are virtue: possessing monastic precepts is virtue, possessing bodhisattva precepts is virtue, daring to leave home is virtue, being able to leave home and renounce worldly life is virtue. Having cultivation and realization is even more so virtue—the higher the cultivation and realization, the higher the virtue. Those of low virtue must not speak of it, and those without virtue even less so. Otherwise, the evil retribution will not be light.