Skillful Speech (aka Right Speech)
Part I
With this month’s focus on Skillful Speech, we progress to investigating those qualities or steps that constitute virtuous
conduct (sila, shila). The steps of the Eightfold Path are organized into three areas sometimes referred to as the
Three Trainings. After wisdom and virtue, we will be investigating those steps leading to development of concentration (samadhi).
Thus, the Eightfold Path is a training model for helping us develop wisdom, virtue and concentration. As you have no doubt
seen in your own practice, although we are isolating the steps to examine them more deeply, all of the steps are related,
mutually dependent, and in practicing one we support the others as well.
The Buddha explained how we can know when speech is skillful: "Monks, a statement endowed with five factors is well-spoken,
not ill-spoken. It is blameless and unfaulted by knowledgeable people. Which five? It is spoken at the right time. It is spoken
in truth. It is spoken affectionately. It is spoken beneficially. It is spoken with a mind of good-will” (Anguttara,
V.98).
As always, our investigation involves looking deeply into our lives to see how we work with skillful speech. In some situations,
it is difficult to know whether we are exercising skillful speech (or silence J ). When I am puzzled on this issue, I ask
myself, “What is the intention in this situation?” If I am satisfied that my intention falls into one of the Buddha’s
five factors, I don’t obsess on whether or not I said the “right thing.” It’s also easier for me
to let go of an attachment to results, since I cannot control others’ reactions to what I have to say. In working with
this step on the path, I have noticed that I often have a desire to be understood (agreement with my point of view is also
nice J). Perhaps you have noticed this subtle attachment in your own practice. How often does the desire to be “right”
govern how we speak? How often do we feel the need to defend our position? What is the attachment here?
Just raising these questions helps us become aware of the underlying nature of our speech habits. Bringing awareness to any
attachment helps us to dissolve it or at least to make skillful choices. As Bhante G points out, “by definition, mindfulness
keeps us in control of what we think, how we act, and what we say.”
With best wishes,
Deb
It is good to control your words and thoughts. The seeker who is in control feels free and joyful. Listen to that seeker who guards his tongue and speaks wisely. Such a one is humble and does not exalt himself.
When people speak badly of you, you should respond in this way: Keep a steady heart and don't reply with harsh words. Practice letting go of resentment and accepting that the other's hostility is the spur to your understanding. Be kind, adopt a generous standpoint, treat your enemy as a friend, and suffuse all your world with affectionate thoughts, far-reaching and widespread, limitless and free from hate. In this state you should try to remain.
From "Buddha Speaks," edited by Anne Bancroft, 2000.
Part II
Skillful speech, action and livelihood are those steps on the Eightfold Path that fall in the training area of virtue. They
follow understanding and thinking (a.k.a. intention or resolve) because we cannot skillfully practice in these areas unless
we are grounded in an understanding of the Four Noble Truths, renunciation, compassion, and loving friendliness. Meditation
practice supports us as we work with the Eightfold Path, helping us become more aware of our habitual responses. As we shine
the lamp of awareness on these patterns, in many instances an alchemical process occurs and we suddenly realize that we quite
naturally respond differently than we have in the past.
Our training in the area of skillful speech involves increasing our awareness, through mindfulness, of our habitual speech
patterns. Just to look and see, as much as possible without judgment, how we use speech in our interactions with others and
how we can more skillfully work within the Buddha’s parameters of skillful speech as described by Bhante Gunaratana.
When we fail, i.e. through lying, gossip, etc., we need to investigate what elicits these responses. Where are we attached?
What is our intention?
We study the steps of the Eightfold Path because it is a training program that can lead to the cessation of dukkha.
In the Samyutta Nikaya sutta, the Buddha tells his followers:
“I saw an ancient path, an ancient road, traveled by the Rightly Self-awakened Ones of former times. And what is that ancient path, that ancient road, traveled by the Rightly Self-awakened Ones of former times? Just this noble eightfold path: right view, right resolve, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration... I followed that path. Following it, I came to direct knowledge of birth... becoming... clinging... craving... feeling... contact... the six sense media... name-and-form... consciousness, direct knowledge of the origination of consciousness, direct knowledge of the cessation of consciousness, direct knowledge of the path leading to the cessation of consciousness. I followed that path.
"Following it, I came to direct knowledge of fabrications, direct knowledge of the origination of fabrications, direct knowledge of the cessation of fabrications, direct knowledge of the path leading to the cessation of fabrications. Knowing that directly, I have revealed it to monks, nuns, male lay followers and female lay followers, so that this holy life has become powerful, rich, detailed, well-populated, wide-spread, proclaimed among celestial and human beings."
May you be well,
Deb
