Condolences on a Deceased Husband Chapter4
When we approach the subject with our limited mental powers, we tend to feel that the Buddhist teachings represent a single truth. We believe that from whatever angle one may approach that truth, if one applies one’s mind to the matter, studies it, and truly desires to achieve success, one will be able to break away from the realm of birth and death. But in fact if one approaches the Buddhist teachings and practices them incorrectly, then one is likely to fall into the great pit known as slander of the Law.
We speak of the ten evil acts and the five cardinal sins, but someone who slanders the Law is worse than one who day and night kills, steals, engages in sexual misconduct, lies, or commits others of the ten evil acts, or worse than an evil man who murders his parents or carries out others of the five cardinal sins. There may be sages and worthy men, persons who have become priests and nuns, who scrupulously observe all the two hundred and fifty precepts and store up in their minds the eighty thousand teachings. They may go through their entire lives without committing a single wrong act, may be looked upon as Buddhas by other people, and may be convinced that they themselves could never fall into the evil paths of existence. And yet they fall into hell more certainly than do the perpetrators of the ten evil acts or the five cardinal sins. For long ages they dwell in the great citadel of the Avīchi hell and cannot find their way out.
By way of an analogy, let us suppose that there is a man who, thinking to make his way in the world, enters the service of his sovereign. Though he commits no outright fault, there is a certain lack of care in his thinking, and from this arise errors in his behavior. He himself is not aware that he has offended, and his companions do not look on his actions as particularly strange. In the presence of the ruler’s consort he is guilty of no overt misdeed, and yet somehow his behavior just naturally tends to be faulty. If such a man once arouses the suspicion of his sovereign, he will find himself blamed for greater error than an outright plotter of rebellion. And if he himself falls into erroneous ways, then his parents, his brothers, and his followers likewise will be led into errors that are by no means trifling.
The crime of slandering the Law is one that the perpetrator himself is not aware of, and those around him do not look upon it as a fault. All think that so long as the person is devoting himself to the Buddhist teachings, he is to be regarded with respect. Thus both the person himself, as well as the disciples and lay followers who support him, all in the end fall into the hell of incessant suffering.
Such was the case with the monks known as Superior Intent and Shore of Suffering. They scrupulously observed the two hundred and fifty precepts and never once violated any of the three thousand rules of conduct, and yet they fell into the great citadel of the hell of incessant suffering, and no term was set for their release. Moreover, the disciples and lay supporters who had gathered around them, in numbers greater than the dust particles of the land, likewise fell into hell, where they suffered torment along with their teachers.
These persons had had no other thought in their minds but to practice good deeds for the sake of their future existence. And yet they met with misfortunes of this kind!