梵網經菩薩戒本疏 4.30

4.30

Sixth, relative gravity: there are six [aspects]: 1. regarding the audience addressed; 2. regarding the object slandered; 3. regarding the agent slandering; 4. regarding the harm caused; 5. combined assessment; 6. oneself versus another. In the first, addressing one person, two persons, many persons, or a great assembly—the former are lighter and the latter graver. In the second, regarding the object slandered, the Three Jewels comprise three kinds: namely, the enduring, the distinct, and the identical essence, or one, two, or three—each, in sequence, is lighter before and graver after. In the third, regarding the agent slandering, minds have three grades: inferior, middling, and superior; speech has coarse, fine, and middling; their lightness and gravity can be known accordingly. In the fourth, regarding the harm caused, there are five: 1. due to this slander, causing many people who have aroused bodhicitta but are indeterminate to regress; 2. causing those who have already believed to regress; 3. causing those who have not yet believed not to believe; 4. causing those who do not yet have wrong views to generate wrong views; 5. causing those who already have wrong views to cling firmly to them. All are graver before and lighter after. In the fifth, combined assessment: slandering a superior object before a great assembly with supreme wrong view, uttering coarse words, and causing great harm constitutes the gravest. The rest, in order and in various combinations, all possess lightness and gravity, which can be understood by analogy. In the sixth, oneself versus another: 1. oneself; 2. another; 3. both. All are lighter before and graver after, as can be known.