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Eightfold Path: Right Speech (1 of 3)

Today I begin the third factor of the Eightfold Path^[1], and this is Right Speech. This is the first factor of the path which has to do with our actions in the world; in this case, actions of speech. The first two factors are establishing the wisdom, the orientation, the consideration of how we're going to live in the world. The next three are very much about what we do, how we manifest and express the wisdom in our lives.

I think of these next three—Right Speech, Right Action, and Right Way of Living (Right Lifestyle, maybe)—as being, in some ways, the center of the Eightfold Path. Maybe they are the center of gravity, the heart of the path. How we act and how we live in the world is so important. There is a spiral in this: through the Eightfold Path, we have wisdom. Wisdom supports us in how we live and act in the world. That, in turn, supports the deepening of our inner life, which is the last three factors of the path. As we deepen our inner life, we have more wisdom for acting in the world. So, it's a kind of a circle or spiral.

We don't have to start in any particular place, but there is a way in which understanding is seen as the beginning, because with understanding, something naturally follows. The first two factors of the Eightfold Path^[2] lead to an interest, a desire, and a valuing of how we speak. Most of our communication, most of our contact and interaction with other people, happens through speech. Whether it is direct speech talking to them, other means of communication, or how we talk to ourselves about other people—even our thoughts are a kind of speech.

The idea here is not to practice Right Speech because of a moral code that says, "You shall do this, have Right Speech." Rather, it's to really understand closely how it arises out of the first two factors: a real appreciation for what is wholesome, healthy, nourishing, or beneficial. It is to orient around that, to consider it, and to have an intention to want to manifest it. Partly because not doing that brings more suffering, is unhelpful, and is debilitating. It is about feeling and sensing, "Well, this is the wholesome direction," and recognizing for oneself the ways in which we lose our freedom, get caught, entangled, and constricted, versus what leads to more freedom.

With this background, we come to speech. What speech is wholesome, nourishing, and supportive? What speech is freeing? What speech keeps us free or keeps opening the doors to freedom? Conversely, what speech constricts us, gets us caught, or preoccupied? What speech is unwholesome and the opposite of freeing?

This is why mindfulness is so helpful with this. The stronger this mindful sensitivity is, the more we can recognize the consequences of how we speak. It's not easy to be mindful of speaking. We often get caught up in our speech and are just so lost in what we're saying, what we want to say, or the flow of the conversation. It's easy to say things we later regret. But learning how to practice mindfulness of speaking—staying in our body, being aware of what's going on in our body, our thoughts, our impulses, or the emotions coming into play—is a really powerful place for mindfulness. It's well worth learning that skill and developing that capacity.

The greater the sensitivity to this world of speech, the easier, more natural, or more obvious it is to be concerned with ways of speaking that are beneficial, that lead to happiness and well-being, and to avoid ways of speaking that are detrimental to ourselves and others, that constrict and limit us.

There are four forms of Right Speech that the Buddha talks about in this regard. Actually, they are usually stated in the negative: not speaking falsehoods, not speaking divisively, not speaking harshly, and not speaking pointlessly. Each of these will be explained over these days. But there are ways in which speaking falsely, divisively (sometimes called slander), harshly (hurtfully), and pointlessly diminishes ourselves or others, brings suffering, and brings what is unwholesome.

The opposite is to speak the truth, and that's our topic for today. I'm going to focus more on the truth. For mindfulness practitioners, truth is really a precious, important, and valued action because mindfulness and truth are almost synonymous. Mindfulness is the act of being truthful about our experience to ourselves. When we do mental noting, we just recognize, "Oh, this is what's happening." It might not seem so consequential what we're recognizing that we call it truth. But as the practice deepens, we'll come to layers of our being where we have to admit or acknowledge things and see, "Wow, this is true too." Some of those might be difficult or painful things to see. And some of the things we discover to be true might be really wonderful parts of ourselves—our beauty.

This is one of the great delights of settling deeply into meditation: discovering inner capacities of wonder, beauty, value, and goodness that might not have been recognized clearly earlier in our lives, or felt as fully for what they are. Recognizing the truth of this goodness within us is as important—maybe more important—than recognizing the truth of the opposite happening within us. Recognizing the truth is a big part of what mindfulness is.

Speaking truth out loud, I call honesty: being able to speak the truth in such a way that it has the same beneficial consequences as telling the truth to ourselves. For that purpose, the Buddha gives three different qualities that should go along with speaking the truth. He says that it should be kind, it should be beneficial, and it should be timely. We only speak the truth if it's timely to do so, if it's beneficial, and if it's kind. We want the truth to be spoken in ways that free people from suffering, that don't cause more suffering or harm. Truth itself can be a weapon; it can be used painfully. The fact that something is true doesn't mean that we're speaking kindly or supportively. We could be causing a lot of pain.

So, speaking the truth goes along with Right Consideration^[3], the second factor of the Eightfold Path: the consideration of non-ill will and non-cruelty. This is often translated as acting with kindness, loving-kindness, friendliness, compassion, and care. Speak the truth when it's the helpful thing to do and the right time for people to hear it. You might think it's helpful, but it's not helpful to come and tell someone about your difficulty with them in the middle of their big crisis about something else. You wait for the right time.

You also try to do the inner work to put aside or work through your own hostility or any ways in which you're triggered to be upset, so the communication can be clear and direct. In mindfulness, we are doing our inner work not to deny or repress anything, but so that when we speak this truth, we can be a clear channel. This allows the communication to be productive for all parties involved, yourself and others.

It seems that speaking the truth, knowing the truth, being connected to what's true, and being honest is probably one of the most valuable resources we have. It's the most valuable kind of wealth. It's more important than how much money you have, how intelligent you are, who you know, what recreational opportunities you have, or the many other things people pursue. For the purposes of growing and maturing as a human being, and maturing on the Buddhist path of freedom, being honest is really the way forward.

This is what's important—not money, smarts, people you know, status, pleasures, or all these other things which don't have the same power as the power of truth. Discovering how to be truthful to oneself and to others in ways that are freeing, kind, friendly, beneficial, nourishing, wholesome, and timely—these are wonderful ways to consider our speech. Part of mindfulness of speech is being considered in our speech, reflecting on what we're saying and when we're saying it.

This Buddhist path is a considered path, a path of consideration, reflection, and contemplation. It starts with Right View, then the second factor, Right Consideration, and now that view and consideration go into considering how we speak. We speak in ways that benefit the world, benefit ourselves and others, and are freeing, supportive, inspiring, and meaningful.

Reflections for the Day

For today, for the next 24 hours until we meet again to talk about the second factor of Right Speech—avoiding divisive speech—maybe you can spend the day really reflecting on this idea of truth and being true. Reflect on how it works, what your own personal relationship to it is, your beliefs around it, and your experiences of it—both difficult and wonderful experiences.

Maybe talk to friends about your experience of truth and truth-telling, and ask them what they've learned in their life about that. Maybe today can be a day that you spend more time reflecting, thinking, talking, and learning about the value of truth than who happens to be elected as president^[4]. Both are important, but in the long term, the topic of truth is much more so.

May you enjoy the subject of truthfulness. Thank you.