What Is Called Slander

The Saṃyukta Āgama records that when a non-Buddhist or a certain layperson asked a disciple of the World-Honored One about the Buddha's teachings, after answering, the disciple would think: "Does my answer accord with the World-Honored One's teachings? Have I not gone against the World-Honored One or slandered the World-Honored One?" So the disciple would go to ask the World-Honored One: "World-Honored One, a non-Buddhist asked me about the Buddha's teachings, and this is how I answered—did I slander You?" The World-Honored One would say: "You answered correctly; you did not slander me." From this we should understand that any speech or verbal expression that does not accord with the facts constitutes slander. If the Dharma a disciple transmits does not accord with the Buddha's intent and is inconsistent with the Buddha, it is slandering the Buddha. If the Buddha says a certain dharma is so, and the disciple says it is not so, that is slandering the Buddha and also slandering the Dharma; regarding the teachings spoken by the Buddha, to utter a single word of "no" is already to slander the Buddha and the Dharma.

Then slandering the Saṅgha becomes easy as well. Slandering the Saṅgha is divided into slandering ordinary monks and slandering bhikṣus and bodhisattvas of the Saṅgha who have attained the Way. The karmic offense of the former is relatively lighter, while the karmic offense of the latter is extremely grave, and its retribution is inconceivable. As long as you deny a noble Saṅgha member of ultimate meaning—uttering a "no," or "not so," or "wrong"—when the facts are not so, then the offense of slander is established. Sentient beings often pay no attention to these matters, thinking there is nothing wrong with denying others, and casually open their mouths to say "wrong" or "not so." Yet this is not merely a matter of fault but a matter of karmic offense; matters involving fundamental issues are generally hellish offenses, and in future lives one will have to undergo the immense evil retribution of having slandered the noble Saṅgha of ultimate meaning. When one truly undergoes that evil retribution in a future life, one often does not know why one has received such evil retribution, and so one undergoes the retribution in a muddled state and then creates karma again in a muddled state. Such is the ignorance and lack of awareness of sentient beings.