不要一时冲动而发下恶愿，否则……

生活中，我们一定要注意，不要因一时不快而发下恶愿。

People tend to utter hateful wishes on impulse when unpleasant things hap­pen to them. This is when we should exercise extreme caution.

否则，仅发一次恶愿，也会带来生生世世的痛苦。

Otherwise, the retribution of merely one bad wish is enough to torture us for lives to come.

佛陀时代的微妙比丘尼就是如此：

The nun Utpala of the Buddha’s time was one such example:

很久以前，她是一位长者的妻子。长者因为膝下无子，又娶了一个小妾，生了一个儿子。

In former times, she married a very wealthy man but was childless. Her hus­band got himself a concubine who soon bore him a son.

妻子因为自己没有儿子，便生起嫉妒心，害死了小妾的儿子。

The first wife, hav­ing no son of her own, became jealous and murdered the concubine’s baby.

小妾怀疑她杀了儿子，就去质问。

The concubine became suspicious and accused the first wife of killing her son.

她当时为了表明自己的清白，就发下毒誓：

The first wife, in order to declare her innocence, solemnly swore:

“如果我杀了你儿子，愿我在生生世世中，丈夫被毒蛇咬死，

“If I have killed your child, may my husbands in all future lifetimes be killed by poisonous serpents.

孩子被水冲走、被狼吃掉，

May my sons be devoured by wolves or drowned in the rapids!

我吃自己孩子的肉，我生身被活埋，

May I be buried alive and eat the flesh of my own son!

父母被火烧死。”

May my father and mother be burned alive in their own house!”

结果，她真的生生世世遭受了以上恶报。

As it turned out, the exact ills from her evil vows did indeed fall on her for many lives.*

不懂因果的人就是这样。

That’s how those ignorant of the law of causality fool themselves.

为了博得他人的信任，或者为了隐瞒、澄清某件事，不惜说妄语，发恶愿。

Just be­cause they want to hide or explain away something, or win over support, they lie blatantly or swear viciously, feeling no qualms at all.

大家想想自己的经历，可能也说过这样的语言。

On reflection we might be guilty of the same faults.

有些人为了洗清自己而赌咒：“如果我贪污了，但愿我怎样怎样……”

For example, a per­son wanting to exonerate himself may resort to swearing, “If I had embezzled money, may I suffer this or that...”

有些夫妻吵架时也发誓：“如果我做了这件事，让我上街被车撞死，喝水被水呛死，来世一定下地狱！”

Some couples in domestic fights may curse, “If I had done such a thing, may I be run over by a car on the street! May I be choked to death while drinking water! May I fall into hell in my next life!”

诸如此类都属于发恶愿，假如你真做过那样的事，将来很难逃得过因果。

All these are nasty wishes. Should you indeed have committed the infractions, in the future there is no way to escape the enactment of the karmic law.

所以，自己不要发恶愿，也要劝别人不发恶愿，每个人都应尽量发善愿。

Therefore, we should never make malicious vows nor advise others to do so, but instead try our best to make good wishes.

不然，一时冲动而发下恶愿，将来的痛苦不是你能承受得了的。

Otherwise, ill intentions, impulsively made, may bring a painful repayment too grave for us to bear in the future.

*Utpala’s misfortune is told in “Commonly, it never rains but it pours” in Chapter Two of this book.

索达吉堪布《做，才是得到》

Khenpo Sodargye《Achieve by Doing》