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Guided Meditation: The Truth of the Moment

Good evening, good evening. Warm welcome, a really warm welcome, wherever you might be and whenever you're listening to this.

So we'll begin with a guided meditation. Just a simple bringing the awareness to the sensations of the body in a global way. Sensing into what does it feel like right now to have a body, to be embodied?

We might notice some general feelings of energy, restlessness, or maybe the opposite of restlessness, some weariness. Maybe the mind is busy, can't quite connect with the body. Whatever is happening, can we welcome it in? After all, it is happening.

So instead of trying to get rid of it, can we just acknowledge it? And sometimes that's sufficient to create the conditions for a different unfolding.

But it's different if we acknowledge our experience with an agenda, that we're acknowledging it in order for it to go away or to be different. Can we acknowledge it simply because that's what's happening right now?

Been noticing the breathing, the body is breathing. In a simple, uncomplicated way, noticing the inhales and the exhales.

Letting the mind settle on the sensations of breathing.

When we find ourselves lost in thought, just very simply begin again.

Part of meditation practice is to align ourselves with the truth of the moment. It's one way we could frame it, that is, to see clearly what is actually happening, what is our actual experience in this moment.

In some ways, we might say that so much of Buddhist practice is about seeing the truth of the moment. If we can use that word, truth, how is it now without all the extra story-making that we often add on top?

We might gently inquire, what's actually happening right now? Not in a way that we have to dig and find it, but in a way in which we open to it.

What are the experiences that are being experienced right now?

Sometimes this word truth can feel weighty. But what if we just consider that it's what's actually happening? It's the reality of the moment.

And with our meditation practice, we can become attuned to, sensitive to, aware of what's actually happening, as opposed to our ideas, our fears, our concerns. And this way, we can bring a certain amount of ease that happens when we are aligned with what's actually happening and not lost in our thoughts or stories. Even if what's happening doesn't match our preferences, it's very difficult. There can be some delight in like, "Well, at least I'm facing it. At least I'm turning towards it and can see how things really are, and have a sense of perhaps what to do next."

So so much about our meditation practice is to help us see what's actually happening, the truth of the moment we might say.

And we do this not only for ourselves but for others, so that we don't get swept along in the stories, the untruths perhaps. So that we can have some steadiness, some groundedness for ourselves and for others, so that we might support them just as the truth supports us.

The Parami of Truth

So, good evening. Good evening, welcome, welcome.

So today I'd like to continue on my, I don't know if we could say the word journey, but I'm talking about the paramis^[1], this list of ten perfections. Sometimes they're translated as these ten qualities that help a person in this movement towards greater and greater freedom.

And one thing that's noteworthy about these is that they're not entirely about meditation. So much of the practice in this tradition that we emphasize is about meditation, but the paramis are about what we might do outside of meditation in our daily lives. So this list of ten is: generosity, ethical behavior, renunciation, wisdom, energy, patience, truthfulness (which is what we're going to talk about tonight), resolve, loving-kindness, and equanimity. It's a long list of ten. We're on number seven, truth.

We can say that truth is to not lie, it's the opposite of lying. And we might ask, well, how do we define lying? A kind of modern-day, contemporary definition that I like is that to lie is to intentionally mislead others when they expect honest communication. And that is to lie so that others will form beliefs that aren't true, so that they won't be aligned with reality, but in fact, they will be having some untruths in their minds.

And sometimes we might have this idea that the truth, or to not lie, or to speak the truth, is somehow quaint or some charming moral or ethical behavior or something like this. I know that when I've given talks on the truth in the past, there's a lot of protest. A lot of people say, "Yeah, but what about this? And what about that?" And they like to think about all the exceptions. "What if the Nazis come to the door and they're asking for the Jews, shouldn't we lie then?" This is often something that we hear. The short answer is yes, I think we should lie then, to protect others. There's different degrees of harm, and to lie in that case, I would say that degree of harm is much less than what might happen.

But one thing to think about what lying is, I like to do these thought experiments and to think about the opposite. What would our world be like if there were no lying? Imagine what if all the politicians told the truth all the time, how things might be different. Imagine if manufacturers and advertisers told the absolute truth about their products at all times.

Or what if we imagine the opposite. That is, sometimes we just assume... excuse me, I'm going to take a drink of water.

Okay, so to return to this, imagine if politicians always told the truth, or if manufacturers and advertisers always told the truth. It's almost mind-boggling to think about this, right? To think about how much we have structured our society in this way because people don't tell the truth, but not all the time.

Because we could do these thought experiments in the opposite direction. That is, that when there is a prescription, when our doctor writes us a prescription, we believe the pharmacist when they say, "Yes, we put 30 tablets of whatever it was that your doctor wrote a prescription for." And if the medication doesn't work in the way that you and your doctor were anticipating, you probably never wonder, "Well, maybe you didn't actually take the drug that was prescribed." Can you imagine what would it be like if, in fact, we didn't trust pharmacists? We thought pharmacists lie and put different things in our pill bottles. What if we have this idea that the Buddha lied? And then we would have to figure out which is true and which is a lie.

So sometimes it's helpful to take things to their extremes to help us to appreciate them, at least that's the case for me.

So this idea of lying, or to not lie, to really take this to heart: if we want the world to be a little bit different, then how might we behave? What is the role that lying has in some of the problems in our lives or in the world? And maybe not lying is a direction, a movement in that direction towards a better life, a better world. We don't want to naively think that telling the truth is going to solve all the problems. But we could say that addictions that we have, really the addictions can't blow up and be the biggest problems that they often are, unless there is some lying involved. Often some of our vices go hand in hand with lying. What about betrayals and fraud and corruption? These things also go with lying. You can't do them without lying. So just this movement towards the direction of a better world and a better life.

But why do we lie? Besides maybe because we want to commit betrayal or fraud or corruption, or because we have an addiction, people lie for a number of reasons. One of the primary reasons is to project a false image of themselves, that is, to avoid embarrassment or to exaggerate their accomplishments. They want people to think something about themselves which isn't entirely accurate. So it's about the liar, or the one who's lying, having a view of themselves that they want others to have even if they themselves don't believe it. But they want to convince others maybe, or let them not know the truth.

Because the liar has a sense of self that they are trying to protect, or maybe they're trying to defend. They have this sense of self: "I'm the one who always meditates, and when you ask me, I'm going to say, 'Yeah, yeah, I meditate daily. During that guided meditation, I didn't get up and go to the refrigerator or any of these other things we might do when we are meditating from home.'"

So to defend oneself is another reason why we might lie, to disguise a wrongdoing or to conceal something that might have been harmful to others. But to lie is mostly about protecting a strong sense of self, as much as maybe a product also is related to a sense of self, you want to have some benefit or something. I think the Buddha recognized—he doesn't say so explicitly—but he recognized the harmfulness that lying can do. Many of you will know that it's one of the precepts; the fourth precept is to refrain from false speech.

So the Buddha made it a precept, which is not the exact same thing as a rule that everyone is compelled to follow, otherwise there'll be some terrible outcome. Instead, these precepts are commitments that people make when they have chosen to follow the Buddhist path. And the Buddha said for all practitioners to have at least five of these precepts, and the fourth one is to refrain from false speech.

So if we want to move along the Buddhist path, which includes this movement towards uprooting greed, hatred, and delusion. This movement towards seeing clearly, less delusion, not being obfuscated by greed and hatred. Whereas we might say that lying is intentionally making it so others can't see clearly, or if we lie to ourselves, making it so that we can't see clearly. And lying has a root of greed, hatred, or delusion—probably greed or hatred underneath is fueling it.

So in this way, the Buddha made a connection between truthfulness and personal integrity. This recognition that speaking the truth comes from a practice of truthfulness, comes from a commitment to truthfulness and a commitment to one's spiritual practice—this movement towards greater and greater clarity, we might say.

And we see the Buddha making this connection between our personal integrity and speaking truthfulness in a teaching that he gave to his young son, Rahula. The tradition holds that Rahula was seven years old at this time, and Rahula had just ordained, so he was a novice monastic. And shortly after he had ordained, the Buddha called Rahula to his presence. And when the Buddha was speaking, there was a pot of water nearby which just had a little bit of water in it. And the Buddha picked it up and showed it to Rahula and said, "Just so little is the spiritual worth of a person who is not ashamed to tell a deliberate lie."

"So little is this spiritual worth." I'm using this language, "spiritual worth"—I heard Bhikkhu Bodhi^[2] when he was describing the sutta^[3] passage use this expression. In the sutta, I don't remember the exact Pali^[4], but we could also translate it as the monk's practice. So, spiritual worth. So the Buddha shows, "See how there's just this little bit of water in this pot here? Just in the same way, the person who is not ashamed to tell a deliberate lie, so little is their spiritual worth."

But then the Buddha goes on, he throws out the water and he says, "So a person who is not ashamed to tell a deliberate lie throws away whatever little spiritual virtue they have been cultivating." So if you've been cultivating and you've been developing along the Buddhist path, whether it's your meditation practice or wisdom or sila^[5] (ethical behavior), when you lie, you throw it out. Pretty strong statement.

But the Buddha continues. He takes the pot and he turns it over. Now that it's empty, he turns it over and he says, "So a person who is not ashamed to tell a deliberate lie turns their whole inner being upside down." Right? If we have this movement towards non-greed, non-hatred, non-delusion, this movement towards the truth, seeing things clearly, when we start lying, we're going the opposite direction and it's discordant with this movement of wanting to have greater and greater clarity.

And then the Buddha goes even further. He turns that pot right back upright and shows it to his son and he says, "See how this pot is vacant and hollow?" And Rahula responds, "Yes." "That's how vacant and hollow the spiritual value is in one who is not ashamed to tell a deliberate lie." Then he ends the discourse by saying, "When one is not ashamed to tell a deliberate lie, there's no evil that one would not do. Thus, Rahula, you should train yourself: 'I will not tell a deliberate lie, even in jest.'"

These are pretty strong words. I appreciate very much that the Buddha is teaching a young person and he's using something tangible, you know, this pot of water. Throwing it out, it's like throwing out whatever you've been cultivating. Looking inside and seeing that it's hollow. Strong words.

So as I mentioned earlier, often people protest, "But maybe there are little white lies?" And to address this, I'm inspired by this little book, it's called Lying, that addresses this very topic. It's written by Sam Harris.

Sam Harris writes that when we say white lies to our friends, presumably because we want to not hurt their feelings, it compromises our connection to them. It compromises our relationship with them in a number of ways. And he says that, well, one is that we deny them access to reality. We deny them access to the truth. So their resulting ignorance often harms them in ways that we don't anticipate.

"Do I look okay in this dress?" You know, maybe the dress is a little bit too revealing and they're going to something and they don't realize it for whatever reason. "Yes, yes, that dress looks great. You're going to do fine." But maybe as it happens they're seeing a future employer, or maybe they're going to a job interview or something like this. So maybe they're not knowing that their dress is a little bit too revealing. Or maybe they're going to a monastery where there are monastics, where there's an encouragement for women to cover their shoulders and their chest areas in a way that is supportive for these monastics. So if we don't let them know what they don't know, maybe we're doing them a disservice.

But rather than saying a truth that may be hurtful, can we speak to the subtext if it's appropriate? What is the subtext? "Does this dress look okay on me, honey?" "I love you no matter what you wear, honey. I think you're beautiful even when you're in your PJs," whatever it might be. So maybe the way to answer the question is to address the question underneath that's being asked, which requires us to be sensitive and to be on our toes.

And then Sam Harris continues and he says that somehow if we are telling white lies to our friends or family members or partners, it somehow seems a failure of friendship. That in some circumstances, false encouragement can be costly to another person. "Yeah, that was great," when in fact maybe it was good, but there were some ways in which they could do better. And maybe they're not encouraged to do a little bit better because they think that they did great, but if they had some feedback, it would make a difference.

Yeah, and this art of giving feedback is a real skill. It's sometimes uncomfortable to receive it, it's uncomfortable to give it. But if we're a friend, we will find the right time and the right way. Time might be one of the key components here. Maybe when they're specifically asking for feedback, or maybe in the context of something else. Maybe they gave a talk that didn't go so well, we can start the conversation—I don't know exactly how to do this, but it could be, "Well, what do you think went well?" or "I really appreciated this, but I admit that I got a little lost when you were doing that," or "I felt a different mood, the mood shifted when you did this." I'm just making this up, but this idea that not telling the truth is a failure of friendship. So that also might be a way in which we can understand that to receive feedback can be a way in which friends are taking care of us, even if it does sting a little bit.

And this goes to something else, that if we don't say something to our friend and instead we are offering insincere praise, Sam Harris states that it's more like treating others like children. It's to treat them such that they can't handle it or that they won't be able to make some adjustments, or won't be able to understand and see like, "Oh, okay. Yeah, that's a good point actually. I didn't realize that." And wouldn't we rather hear things that maybe could use a little polishing or some tweaking? Wouldn't we rather hear that from our friends when we know that it comes because they care about us and that they want the best for us? So this idea of not telling the truth sometimes is a failure of friendship.

And then just this recognition also that trust is eroded when we don't tell the truth. If others find out, then these tiny erosions of trust, they add up and they can be insidious because they often are never remedied. They are just a little, and that chips away at the relationship.

And so when there are these failures of integrity, people remember that. And even if we never talk about it, they remember it. So this is the importance of truthfulness in our relationships. The Buddha was pointing to the importance of it for our integrity, but in addition, we know that it's important for relationships, and we know that the Buddha often is talking about the importance of Kalyana mitta^[6]. So is there a way that we can speak the truth that is kind, beneficial, and timely? Not the truth just for the truth's sake, but can we say it in such a way that is supportive?

We can see where this is a parami, this is a practice in our daily life. It's in our interactions with others and as well as with ourselves when we're on the cushion. Are we seeing things clearly? Are we telling the truth to ourselves? Are we seeing the way that greed, hatred, or delusion might be showing up?

So some of the benefits, of course, maybe it's obvious, but if we have this commitment to truthful speech, it also has a sense of responsibility, this commitment to a truthful representation of what we know. And this emphasis on a truthful representation of what we know supports our own quest, our own journey, our own path for truth, for seeing things clearly.

And one way that we can preserve the truth, the Buddha... in another sutta, there's a story where a Brahmin, which is a priest of the dominant religious tradition of the time, he says to the Buddha, "With regard to the ancient Brahmanic hymns that have come down through oral transmission (that is, they've been memorized through the years, this was happening even before Buddhism) preserved in the collections, the Brahmins have come to the definite conclusion: only this is true, anything else is wrong."

And then the Buddha responds by asking him, "Well, do you know this to be true? Have you seen this to be true?" "No." "Has your teacher known and seen this to be true?" "No." "Has your teacher's teacher? Have the people who created the hymns, do they know this to be true?" And the answer is no.

So then the Buddha says, "Well, you are saying this out of faith." And then the Buddha says, "There are five things that can turn out in two ways: true or false." And these five things are things that are held out of faith, things that are held out of preference, things that are held because of an oral tradition ("This is what we've always done," for example), or for reasoned contemplation (often philosophers are doing this), or acceptance of a view after consideration (maybe you've heard something and you thought, "Well, okay. Yeah, I believe that to be true"). So all five of these may be true, but they may not be true.

Also, the Buddha points out that even though you have full faith in something, it may be false. Just in the same way, even if you don't have full faith in something, it may be true. Even though we have a strong preference for something, it may be false, and if we don't have a preference, it may be true. And he goes through this with the other five.

So then he says we preserve the truth when we say that under these conditions, a wise person to preserve the truth would not come to the definite conclusion just saying, "Only this is true, anything else is wrong." But they would preserve the truth by saying, "My faith is thus," and then say whatever they want to say. "My preference is thus," and say whatever they want to say. "I believe this because the tradition has it," or "I believe this reasoned contemplation, I've thought about this and this is my current thinking."

So this idea is to preserve the truth, to maybe let people know our authority or why we believe it, or what's underneath supporting those. So then we can let people know, "Yes, I believe this because I read it in this newspaper. I heard it from this person. I'm not sure, but this sounds true to me."

And in this way, in our speech, we can really emphasize this commitment to truth and not trying to mislead people, but instead to let them know what our current thinking is, let them know what we're imagining to be true, or let them know what our hypotheses are or what we have faith in. As opposed to saying, "Only this is true, and anything else is wrong."

Truthfulness, the seventh parami. This shows up in so many different ways in our lives. I've talked about a few of them. Truthfulness in speech, wanting to see clearly in our meditation practice, helping our friends. What are some other ways in which you might see how truth, or the commitment to truth, might show up in our lives and might support not only our lives but the lives of others, in which we can be part of this movement towards truth and greater peace and greater freedom?

For the benefit of all beings everywhere. Thank you.