A student asked: at work or among close acquaintances, one often meets people who love to gossip and speak ill of others, blaming everyone else without ever looking at themselves. What is the karmic result of gossip and slander, and how should one deal with — or help — people like this?

Pra Ajarn explained that every life is under the control of three natures: the wholesome, the unwholesome, and the neutral. Someone who habitually gossips usually doesn't realize they're being guided by the unwholesome — the more they do it, the more automatic it becomes. The unwholesome does this to draw demerit in, through the speaker and through anyone nearby who happily joins in the gossip. Once someone accepts and joins in, they become, in a sense, imprisoned within that dimension, drawing demerit to themselves.

Whichever part of the body is used to commit this act has its good power stripped away. If it's the mouth, then the voice box, lips, and teeth are all affected — the words carry no weight, no credibility. Even warning one's own children carries no force; no one listens. The voice itself becomes unpleasant to hear, and listeners want to turn away. In a future life, should one be reborn as an animal, one might become a sharp-beaked bird that pecks — as a revered senior teacher once described the karmic fruit of this habit.

As for how to respond, Pra Ajarn advised keeping a distance from someone possessed by this kind of unwholesomeness — don't get entangled, since involvement only turns a small matter into a bigger one. As for helping them, one can do so through aspiration and by radiating loving-kindness. A wave of loving-kindness may help if the karmic result is still light, but if it has become deeply automatic, it is difficult to help. The best approach is to aspire that neither oneself nor those around one ever become like this, and to aspire in the opposite direction as well: for speech that is beloved, truthful, beneficial, and gentle to hear.