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Eightfold Path: Right Speech (2 of 3)

So continuing on the topic of Right Speech, I want to step back a little bit to emphasize the continuity of these factors of the Eightfold Path. Starting with Right View, as I've been saying repeatedly, one of the components of Right View is to appreciate the consequences of our actions. This is a fascinating and very important issue: that something inside of us registers the impact that our actions have. The impacts they have on other people, the impact they have on us. In the teachings of the Buddha, the consequences of actions are hugely important.

This is a little bit obscured in the Dharma teachings that come out of the United States and Europe, where for our own philosophical reasons and history, we've picked up on intention as being really important. Surprisingly, given how much we teach it, intention isn't that important for the Buddha. It's difficult to dig deep down and find that that's the case. What's much more important for him is the consequences, which in modern language is impact.

If we rely and rest in our intention, we can then overlook the impact. Or we could have an intention and not care about the means—how we get to the goal of the intention—because the goal is more valuable than the means. But if we're interested in consequence and impact, then every step along the way we're concerned. We're taking in, we're registering the impact we have. For example, if what we want is world peace but we approach that with hostility, maybe we can clear away the playing field of the people who we don't like so there can be peace. But to feel the impact that has on us, and on them—the people who get cleared off the field—is painful. It tears at the fabric of the heart.

If we're sensitive, if we're present, we are social beings, and our connection, empathy, or resonance with other people actually counts a lot for the individual. This is one of the surprises for me that I discovered in my early years of meditation: that as meditation tenderized, softened, and opened me, it took off the armor that I carried and the fear that was between me and the world. I felt much more attuned and sensitive to what was happening in the world around me, both directly and indirectly, and much more sensitive to the impact that I have on other people. So this idea of impact, or consequences, becomes very important.

We learn then that the impact of greed, the impact of hostility, and the impact often of delusion is not beneficial. It causes harm to others and to ourselves. We begin not to be moralistic around greed, hatred, and delusion, but rather to be sensitive around it, so that, of course, we don't want to harm ourselves or harm others by acting out greed and hatred.

So we recognize the difference between doing those things which are motivated by greed, hatred, and delusion, or acting with Right Consideration (the second factor of the Eightfold Path). Right Consideration involves non-addiction to sensual pleasure, non-ill will, and non-cruelty. These counteract greed, hate, and delusion. We become more attuned and more considerate of those things that are involved in non-addiction to sensual pleasure (renunciation of that kind of pursuit), non-ill will (friendliness), and non-cruelty (compassion). That's how we're considering things; we're looking at things, and as we go about our life, we're asking ourselves, "Is this a wise consideration? Is it Right Consideration?" And now we're applying it to our speech.

Speech has a huge impact. The second factor in the list of Right Speech that the Buddha gives (the first being speaking the truth) is avoiding speaking words that divide people. Sometimes it's translated into English as "slander," so not speaking divisively, and rather speaking words that bring concord, unification, and bring people together.

Why would we do that? I think it goes back to this idea that we're attuned to consequences. We're interested in them. It makes a difference to us whether we cause harm, whether we create divisions between people, because it affects other people, which affects us. But also, we are changed for the worse when we slander or use divisive speech that puts people at odds with each other.

This doesn't have to be just through words; not speaking can be divisive. Not speaking up to make a difference, not saying anything, sometimes enables falsehoods to continue. Not speaking sometimes allows divisiveness to continue, causing more suffering.

So the movement here is: what does speech look like when it's not motivated by greed, hatred, and delusion? What does it look like when it's motivated by non-addiction to sensual pleasure, non-ill will, and non-cruelty? One of the ways it looks is that it's interested in unification and concord. The Buddha talked about this kind of speech as speech which unifies those who are divided and maintains or supports the unity of those who are already unified. It is to delight in concord, to cherish concord. And this is how we speak.

How do we do that? How do you speak about people behind their backs? Do you speak in ways that are divisive or slanderous, that if they heard what you said, they'd feel hurt? If you could track the trajectory or the consequences of your speech, would it be that two or three generations down from that conversation, other people hear the same news, the same idea, and it comes back and bites the person you're talking about? That they wouldn't be happy about it, and it actually makes their life more difficult? Or do you talk behind people's backs and say things which are unifying, that make people say, "Oh, I'm happy to see that person next time I see them," or make them happy to figure out a way to work together?

It's fascinating how much emphasis the Buddha placed on concord or social unity. He encouraged his followers, with acts of body, acts of speech, and acts of mind—how we think about things and how we view the world around us—to do so with an eye for creating concord and unification. An eye for creating a community of human beings that care for each other, support each other, and are friendly to each other.

You know, it's easy to have this as an ideal. It's much more challenging to maintain that principle and talk this way when other people are talking with hostility, when other people are divisive. So what are the skillful ways to step towards that, to begin healing that divide? Sometimes what we can do is simply not put fuel on the flames of that divide. How not to participate in further dividing. How not to get imbued with or take on the divisiveness other people have and then just contribute to more and more of it.

I think that meditation practice makes a huge difference in this regard. As we learn in meditation how to be open, relaxed, and sensitive, we really become attuned to consequences and impact. It makes a difference for us because of empathy; the impact of our words and what's going on in the world around us makes a difference to us. Can the impact we have be one that disarms people, that opens people, that predisposes them to look upon us and others in a friendly way? Can we be forces for bringing people together?

That's certainly my wish for Buddhism in this country: that Buddhism somehow is a bridge-builder. Buddhism is a force that doesn't exactly take sides but rather is more interested in bridging people together, bringing people together so we all can be at the table together and find our common good, find our commonality. As naive or simplistic as that might seem sometimes, I believe in it. I believe that it's possible to have an inclusive heart that leaves no one out. That we never turn our backs towards anyone, that we never hold on to our resentments or our hurts in such a way that we banish people from our hearts. That we are always ready, in a wise, safe, and appropriate way, to be inclusive and step forward and say, "This too. This person too I will meet. I don't agree with what the person's saying, I don't agree with what the person is doing, but this person too I will relate to in a friendly way." And if the person is too complicated, difficult, and maybe even dangerous to do it overtly, at least we can do it in our hearts privately, so that no one is left out of our hearts.

Finally, what we see here is that this central teaching of the Buddha, the Eightfold Path, right at the heart of it, is a social teaching. It is a teaching about how we live our lives in the world and how we relate to other people. This is really, really important for the Buddhist path. It is a path to liberation, and that path to liberation is completely inclusive of our social relationships, caring for them, and unifying them. It's hard to be free spiritually if we are living divisively—maybe impossible.

So may you consider over the next 24 hours how your speech, and sometimes your silence, can support unification and support concord. So that people can come together with respect for each other, with friendliness, with sympathy for each other. How can you speak in that way? How can you avoid, maybe for the next 24 hours—run the experiment and try to the best you can, even if you break out in a sweat—saying things which are divisive, or which, if the person you're talking about could hear what you said, they would feel hurt or upset? Just don't say anything divisive or anything negative. See if you can do that for one day, and instead, say words that are unifying and support others to open their hearts and be unifying. Run the experiment, see what that's like. For one day, it's probably a worthwhile thing to do. Thank you.