One's present acts, whether positive or negative, are the causes for one's future happiness or ill fortune. What one does now produces internal changes which later give rise to specific results or effects. Whether one's acts are good or bad can be considered from two points of view: their effects, and the motives behind the acts. Buddhism attaches greater importance to the latter. The story of King Asoka is often cited as an example of good causes, or motives, created in a past existence. While Sakyamuni Buddha was begging in Rajagriha, the capital of the kingdom of Magadha in India, a boy made a mud-pie and offered it to the Buddha, as he had nothing else to offer. Recognising the sincerity of the boy, the Buddha predicted that he would become the king of a great empire in his next life. Thus, the boy was bom as King Asoka. This account emphasises the importance of the pure spirit of making offering, rather than the value of the gift itself.
In his Letter to Lord Matsuno, Nichiren Daishonin enumerated the fourteen causes of evil:
(1) arrogance;
(2) negligence;
(3) arbitrary, egotistical judgment;
(4) shallow, self-satisfied understanding;
(5) attachment to earthly desires,
(6) lack of seeking spirit;
(7) not believing;
(8) aversion;
(9) deluded doubt;
(10) vilification;
(11) contempt;
(12) hatred;
(13) jealousy; and
(14) grudges.
These fourteen types of evil refer not so much to specific actions as to one's evil motives or distorted spiritual orientation. The gravest of all forms of evil acts is the slander of the True Law, the act of condemning, deprecating, mocking or rejecting the correct Buddhist teaching or its practitioners out of antagonism or hatred. The negative effect brought on by such an offence is said to be beyond imagination. It is written in the Lotus Sutra that one who commits slander is doomed to fall into the hell of incessant suffering for countless kalpas. This hell is the most horrible of all types of hells. One who kills a parent is said to stay in this hell for no more than twenty kalpas, but one who slanders stays immeasurably longer. The act of slander is that much heavier, that much more onerous.
Some people, according to another interpretation, consider it slanderous to have faith in religions other than Buddhism, but this is not always strictly true. If people believe in another religion withoutthe slightest knowledge of the existence of the Mystic Law, they are not committing slander. However, if a religion is antagonistic towards the Mystic Law, its believers will unknowingly be led into slander. That is why people who profess faith in such a religion are regarded as slanderers of the Mystic Law. On the other hand, if a religion was established without the least awareness of the existence of the Mystic Law, it does not fall within the concept of slander as such. The error of the persons who belong to such a religion is due to ignorance and not to any malicious intention. Here again, the intention or motive is much more important than the act itself.
It is sometimes said that one who disobeys one's seniors is committing slander, but this is not correct. Naturally, one should follow wise advice, but one must not accept misleading guidance. Sakyamuni's admonition, "Rely upon the Law and not upon persons," is one of the most valuable teachings he left for future generations.
COSMIC 7/94
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