法苑珠林 88.29

88.29

Furthermore, the Sarvāstivāda-śāstra says: Applying false speech, slander, and harsh speech to one another, each forms four alternatives. First, it is false speech, but not slander or harsh speech: relaying this speech of another and speaking it to that person; because it is untrue, it is false speech; because it is not with a divisive mind, it is not slander; because it is spoken with gentle words, it is not harsh speech. The other alternatives are analogous and can be mutually understood.