“Amitabha!” I pressed my palms together in greeting to the Magistrate. “Thank you for your labors. Please attend to your affairs. I give thanks!”
I departed riding the white‑lotus blossom for home!
17 / Retribution for Harsh Speech — The Extremely Agonizing Venomous‑Snake Gut‑Piercing Hell
Grateful for the empowerment of the Buddha, I departed riding a white lotus flower.
“Amitabha! I, Ayù, join my palms in greeting to you, Magistrate.”
“Magistrate, I would like to ask: If mortals utter extremely harsh words that injure others’ self-esteem and hurl insults in anger; if parents beat and discipline their children, if spouses quarrel, refuse to yield to one another, and spew vicious curses, will these deeds condemn them to the hells to undergo karmic retribution?”
The Magistrate said, “Mortals commit harsh speech when they habitually utter cruel words out of anger and show no mercy toward others, hurting and insulting them. Examples include calling others beasts, telling them to die, cursing them to have no descendants and die with no proper burial. They even curse people regarding matters that the victims hold most dear. For instance, Person A greatly longs for a son, yet his wife can no longer bear children and has had only five daughters. One who commits harsh speech maliciously hurls vicious words such as ‘you have no descendants, your fine house stands empty for ghosts to dwell in’ directed at Person A. This leaves Person A in low spirits at best; at worst it damages family harmony and may even drive him to seek illicit affairs to father a son. When households lack harmony, social unrest results. Many mortals currently commit harsh speech, reducing others to utter shame and despair, with some even taking their own lives. All coarse and cruel words that injure mortals’ mind, body and spirit count as harsh speech, especially extremely vicious utterances.
Those who commit harsh speech must descend into hell to undergo punishments. Harsh speech is a vicious cycle of bad habits. Harsh speech keeps company with greed, anger and ignorance. All who commit harsh speech share anger as their common trait, yet the malice and karmic force of each offender vary in depth. If one utters a single harsh-speech offence against a sage who has certified fruition through cultivation, it is enough to cause one to fall into hell and endure boundless manifold sufferings. Even when one finishes one’s hell retribution, one transmigrates into the animal realm and undergoes all manner of animal sufferings and torments. Upon rebirth in the human realm, one receives the karmic retribution of lowly social status, until the residual retribution brought forth by one’s harsh speech is entirely exhausted. During this lengthy ripening period of karmic fruits from harsh speech, the extreme suffering endured easily gives rise to fresh karmic forces, thus drawing endless torment upon the person. Only when one meets the guidance of a good knowing advisor, arouses great resolve to amend one’s wrongful conduct, practices goodness and accumulates virtues, does one gain good causes and conditions to be liberated from the sea of suffering. Otherwise, one drifts boundlessly in the sea of suffering and sinks for myriad eons!
Among the condemned souls who fall into hell to undergo punishments, many suffer retribution for harsh speech committed in their earthly‑life interactions with spouses, friends, colleagues, parents, brothers and sisters. Harsh‑speech offences occur most frequently between husbands and wives, for such offences are also easiest to commit. Women account for a larger proportion among those who commit harsh speech. As an official of this realm, I exhort all women to guard their verbal karma well. Many women carry heavy black karma. Drawn by past black karma, they encounter all sorts of physical and mental hardships in life. Some inevitably utter harsh speech and harm those around them whenever they endure monthly physical discomfort.
Human beings are conditioned to view things from a self‑serving perspective. At the slightest setback, they readily give rise to complaints against people, objects and surrounding circumstances. They always regard others as being at fault rather than themselves. Thus they allow bad moods to surge and fade in an instant, and commit harsh speech that wounds others.