四分戒本疏卷第一．第二．第三 3.5

3.5

The second precept: reviling. 1. Purpose of formulation: The rule for human beings should be to utter wholesome words, mutually praising each other to make others rejoice and energetically advance in cultivating the path. To turn around and disparage another person with base and degrading words makes them feel ashamed and abandon their practice of the correct work, wounding the novice's mind more severely than a cut from a sword. Because the distress caused is not light, the Sage formulated the rule. The specific conditions are six: 1) a fully ordained bhikṣu—the Sarvāstivāda and Mahīśāsaka Vinayas state that reviling the lower four groups of disciples all incurs a duṣkṛta; 2) it is reviling speech; 3) knowing it is reviling speech; 4) having the intention to humiliate; 5) the phraseology is distinct; 6) the other person hears and understands. This reviling speech also has four permutations, which may be understood by comparison with the preceding. Below is the direct explanation of the root precept text. This precept arose because the group of six bhikṣus, when settling affairs, reviled others by class, causing them to lose their presence of mind and remain silent in shame. The bhikṣus reported the fault, and the Buddha cited the ancient ox as an analogy to an animal being reviled and unable to exert effort, whereupon he formulated this precept.