法苑珠林 58.7

58.7

As the *Mahāvaipulya Dhāraṇī Sūtra* states, the Buddha said: 'Good sons, after the Buddha's parinirvāṇa, if there is a Dharma master who skillfully preaches the Dharma to people in accordance with their inclinations and joys, and is able to cause bodhisattvas studying the Mahāyāna and the great assemblies to give rise to a single hair's breadth of joy, or even to shed a single tear momentarily, you should know that all of this is due to the Buddha's supernatural power. If there is a foolish person who is not actually a bodhisattva but falsely claims to be a bodhisattva, slandering a true bodhisattva and the Dharma they practice, and furthermore saying: "What does he know? What does he understand?" If both sides are harmonious, they can maintain and circulate my Dharma; if both sides dispute and quarrel, the saddharma will not be practiced. This person who slanders the Dharma incurs extremely grave karmic offenses, falling into the three evil destinies from which it is difficult to escape. If there is a foolish person who does not believe and accept what the Buddha has preached, even though he reads and recites a thousand Mahāyāna texts, explains them for people, and attains the four dhyānas, because of slandering others he will undergo great anguish for seventy kalpas. How much more so for that foolish person who actually knows nothing yet is haughty and arrogant, even slandering a single four-line verse! You should know that this karma definitely leads to falling into hell, never seeing the Buddha. Because he looked at someone who had generated the bodhicitta with an evil eye, he receives the retribution of having no eyes. Because he slandered someone who had generated the bodhicitta with an evil mouth, he receives the retribution of having no tongue.'