法苑珠林 76.29

76.29

夫生老病死。無自出之期。菩提涅槃。有修入之路。諸佛所以得道。由行四攝故凡聖歸依。菩薩所以成聖。由行六度故黑白欽敬。今見流俗之徒。乃專搆屏辭惡傳彼此。令他眷屬分離朋友乖散。樂種不和之業。感得生離之苦。縱使善心教離惡人。亦是破壞有益無罪。故成論云。若善心教化。雖為別離亦不得罪。若以惡心令他鬪亂。則是兩舌得罪最深。謂墮地獄畜生餓鬼。若生人中被他誹謗。唯得弊惡破壞眷屬。當知上說妄語過中為乖彼此。而妄語者。據此義邊即是兩舌。若說此罪三世招苦。如上已說。不須重述。

Now birth, old age, sickness, and death offer no time of self-extrication; bodhi and nirvāṇa possess a path of cultivation and entry. That all the Buddhas attain the Way is due to practicing the four means of embracing [sentient beings], so that ordinary people and sages take refuge in them. That bodhisattvas become sages is due to practicing the six pāramitās, so that monastics and laypeople revere them. Today one observes worldly fellows who focus exclusively on fabricating private slander, maliciously carrying talk back and forth, causing others' kin to separate and friends to estrange, taking pleasure in sowing the karma of disharmony and incurring the suffering of being parted while alive. Even if one separates someone from an evil person with a good intention, this too is a disruption, but it brings benefit and incurs no sin. Therefore the Tattvasiddhi-śāstra says: If one instructs and transforms with a good intention, though it causes separation, one incurs no sin; if with an evil intention one causes others to quarrel and fall into chaos, then this is malicious speech and incurs the gravest sin, meaning falling into the hells, animal realm, or hungry ghosts; if born among humans, one is slandered by others and obtains only wicked and fractured kin. It should be known that in the previous discussion of the faults of false speech, it was for the sake of estranging both sides; yet false speech, in terms of this meaning, is precisely malicious speech. If one speaks of the suffering incurred across the three periods of time by this sin, as it has already been stated above, it need not be repeated.