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Eightfold Path: Right Speech (3 of 3)

So, the topic for these days is Right Speech, as the third factor of the Eightfold Path^[1] that the Buddha taught. One of the things that is nice to think about, or be inspired by, is these four different aspects of Right Speech. These are: speaking the truth, speaking in a way that creates concord by uniting people and developing healthy connections, speaking kindly, and speaking for a good purpose.

Part of this is that these qualities—these kinds of speech—are an expression or manifestation of awakening. They are an expression of being free, of the kind of freedom that Buddhism emphasizes. If you ask, "What is an enlightened person like in Buddhism?" one of the ways you could answer is, "Oh, they would speak the truth. They would speak for the purposes of uniting people and developing rich connections. They would speak kindly, and they would speak for a good purpose."

All the factors of the Eightfold Path can be seen as something that wells up, exists, or is present for a person who has some degree of spiritual freedom. They are not effortful in that way. It is almost as if they arise out of that freedom—freedom from stress and freedom from extra effort, such as the effort of the ego, of self-centeredness, or the effort of greed, hate, fear, and confusion.

It is really remarkable to feel something inside settle and become peaceful or still. From that place—which is not a place of dullness, inactivity, or inertia—there can be speech, actions, and ways of looking and seeing the world. The Eightfold Path encompasses all aspects of that, as well as practices we can take on to find that realization and get to a place of freedom. It is helpful to know that what we are looking for, as we practice the Eightfold Path on the way to realization, is freedom from stress, clinging, and extra effort, even in the middle of our persistent effort to engage with the path.

Abandoning Harsh Speech

There are four forms of Right Speech, and I am going to talk about the third and the fourth today. For the third, I would like to read you the passage about the opposite of Right Speech in this form: "One speaks harshly. One utters words that are rough, hard, hurtful to others, offensive to others, bordering on anger, unconducive to concentration."

The second form of Right Speech was avoiding divisive speech, which separates people, like slander. This third category has to do with speech that hurts the person we are talking to. It doesn't necessarily divide them from anybody else, but it hurts the person when we speak harshly.

The word "harsh" also encompasses offensive and hurtful speech. It includes just raising our voice in an assertive, aggressive, and painful way. Even if the words might be kind, the tone of voice can be really hard to hear, implying anger, harshness, or animosity in the words themselves.

The description of these kinds of words ends with, "are not conducive to concentration." Concentration, as I have talked about before, is unification. It is becoming whole, settled, stable, grounded, and composed in oneself. The word for concentration, samadhi^[2], is a rich word in Buddhism that the English translation doesn't really capture. There are ways of talking that agitate us and take us away from that.

The opposite of this harsh speech is speech that allows us to settle, become whole, and find that place of beautiful, vital, soft stillness and freedom inside that samadhi points to.

Cultivating Kind Speech

The description of the opposite of harsh speech goes like this: "Abandoning harsh speech, one abstains from harsh speech. One speaks words that are gentle, pleasing to the ear, lovable, that go to the heart, are courteous, desired by many, and agreeable to many."

Here, there is a lot of care in how we speak. While it doesn't explicitly say "conducive to concentration," I think that is implied. This idea of speech being conducive or unconducive to concentration is a very important quality. There is something about the deep subtleness and stillness of concentration that acts as a powerful reference point for finding our way and knowing how to speak.

One could try to force speech in these ways—trying to speak gently, pleasingly, lovably, courteously, and in a way desired by many—but there can be so much effort and strain to do so. I remember the very first time I intentionally tried to be kind to someone. I was standing in the dorm stairwell during my first year in college, and there was another freshman woman that I guess I liked. I put on all the kindness I could, and it was so artificial and saccharine. I don't think it really worked in the way that I hoped it would work.

It certainly took a lot of effort on my part. But the place where true kind speech comes from is naturally gentle, pleasing to the ear, lovable, and goes to the heart. How do we take care of our speech, look at it, and be with it? We take so much care that it is really nice for people to hear, pleasant, and enjoyable.

There is a little saying that people will spend more time choosing their clothes to wear than choosing what they say. There is also a saying that if you don't have something to contribute, maybe don't say it. We should have care about what we speak.

Purposeful Speech and Noble Silence

This care particularly applies to the fourth aspect of Right Speech, sometimes called "no idle chatter" or "no idle speech." It is actually two words in Pali that make up this expression, and both of them can mean foolish and nonsense.

So, don't speak nonsense; don't engage in foolish speech. At the heart of this, I think it means not speaking words that have no purpose. Now, idle chatter—just talking about the weather or chatting about simple things with people—can have a very important purpose of making connections and cultivating a kind, supportive warmth between people.

But don't speak nonsense. Don't speak about things you don't know about or just make things up. Don't talk about things that have no value or important purpose, except to chatter foolishly. Here is a full description of what this nonsense means: "One speaks at the wrong time, speaks what is not fact, speaks what is useless, speaks contrary to the Dhamma^[3] or discipline. At the wrong time, one speaks such words as are worthless, unreasonable, immoderate, and unbeneficial."

Now, the Right Speech counterpart goes like this: "One speaks at the right time, speaks what is fact, speaks what is good, speaks on the Dhamma and the discipline. One speaks at the right time such words as are worth recording, reasonable, moderate, and beneficial."

Instead of just "no nonsense," it might be interesting to translate this aspect of Right Speech as "purposeful speech" or "beneficial speech"—speech that has a beneficial purpose. Even if it is idle chatter, it can still be beneficial for creating community. I think this idea of living a purposeful life and having purposeful speech really supports the movement to freedom and liberation. It can be an expression of our care and our love for the world.

Why not, provided that this sense of purposefulness arises from a place where it doesn't take a lot of energy, stress, or strain? It comes from this place of subtleness, composure, and stillness that we can find. Living a purposeful life supports that state and doesn't mess with or agitate it. We speak in a purposeful way for the benefit of ourselves and for the benefit of others.

If our speech doesn't benefit either ourselves or others—ideally both—maybe there is a possibility that what is most valuable is silence. Silence in Buddhism gets a wonderful adjective when it is done really well and properly: it is called Noble Silence. Sometimes silence is how people can connect. In silence, there is a wonderful connection, a truth-telling, and a meeting in truth.

Conclusion

So, kind speech—speech that supports other people—and purposeful speech—speech that has the purpose of benefiting this world we live in—are definitely part of the path to liberation. They are also an expression of liberation. May you enjoy your speech and your talking. May you thrive in talking when you want to talk. And may it be that you value how you speak, speaking in truthful ways, in concord, in ways that benefit and support people, and in ways that have a beneficial purpose.

Thank you so much for this. Tomorrow we will start the next factor of the Eightfold Path, which is Right Action. We see that we are getting into the work of how the movement of liberation spreads outwards into how we act in the world. Thank you.