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have the power to heal?
We speak a lot in our life. We talk so much to each other. Words
have tremendous power. They have the power to put us to sleep. Do you
know that one?  La, la, la, yes, yes, no, no, back and forth for hours. Or
they have the power to wake us up. Words of wisdom, words from the
heart, words from the eye of wisdom can make all kinds of things clear
to us, can help us to see, to let go, to discover, to awaken.
There are two principles to Right Speech, to this foundation of
speech as the first aspect of uprightness of heart. The first is that our
words be true. Truth is so sweet. If you know anyone who really speaks
honestly and truthfully, admittedly sometimes they re a pain in the ass,
but mostly one s sense of that person is a delight, that here s somebody I
can go and speak to or listen to and hear that which is true. It s just won-
derful.
There s a story of Mullah Nasrudin, the old wise man and fool, this
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kind of strange character. He puts up his booth. It s sort of like Lucy in
 Peanuts. It says,  Psychiatric Assistance or  Psychological Coun-
seling  two questions, or something like that, only instead of five
cents it s five old dinars. It s really a lot of money. People think,  Gosh,
he must be very, very good to charge so much money. So one person
goes up to him, and takes out five old dinars and puts it on the counter.
He says to Nasrudin,  Isn t that an awful lot to charge for just two ques-
tions? Nasrudin looks back and says, Yes, it is;and what s your second
question?
Two principles: First, that the words are true for Right Speech; and
second, that they re kind or helpful, because it s possible to say what s
true and not have it be helpful at all,what one might call  brutal honesty .
 I ll tell you just what I think, whether it s helpful or not. The second
principle is that speech be helpful, not only that it be true, but also that it
speak in some way that s compassionate or kind or useful to someone.
What does communication do in our world? It makes society. Our
society is built on communication. We re isolated individuals, in some
measure anyway, even if perhaps cosmically we re one, but mostly we
experience ourselves as separate. Our society, our friendships, our love,
the laws, the whole world around us, is created by agreement through
communication. It s very, very powerful. And when it s truthful, or it s
honest, or its genuine, it builds trust, and it builds a society of harmony
with our friends, with our loved ones, with our family. When its truthful,
it opens a channel for our hearts to meet. When it s not, there s no chance
for the hearts to meet, or very, very little. You probably know this in your
relationships, don t you, that if you have stored things that you haven t
communicated,stored resentments,what happens? Or if you have things
that you ve said that really haven t been true, that haven t come from
your heart, that have been covered over, or were manipulative, or made
to sound one way when they weren t  what happens to that commu-
nion, that sharing, the space of love? It gets weakened or it disappears,
for a little while anyway. It s not available to you. In many ways, the
love between people that we live with or spend a lot of time with rides
on the vehicle of our communication. If the communication is clear, or
open, or truthful, where it s not held, where it s not stored, where there s
forgiveness, then there s a real sense or communion.
Classically,wrong speech  or what snot considered Right Speech
 is False Speech,or gossip. Most of you who have been to retreats have
heard Joseph Goldstein tell the story of when he vowed not to gossip
anymore for a period of time. He picked a month. And for him he meant
in this particular vow not to speak about a person who wasn t there, even
if it was a favorable thing, just not to talk behind someone s back. He
32 Chapter 3. Right Speech
discovered this amazing thing, that 90% of his speech was eliminated.
We spend so much time talking about third people, most of which is
pretty useless.
So it s not false speech, not gossiping, which is very helpful, not
back  biting or undermining people, refraining from harsh or abusive
language  these are the classical things, but they really speak to speech
as a vehicle for love, as a vehicle for communion, as a vehicle for awak-
ening. What Right Speech does, it acts as a question: Can we start to be-
come conscious all of these hours where we talk on automatic pilot? Can
we make our speech become more useful to ourselves and to our planet?
To that question, I ask: What do you care about, what do you want for
the world and for yourself?
When we speak falsely, when we back  bite, when we gossip, and
all those other kinds of things, what makes us do that? Have you ever
done that? Have you ever engaged in some kind of unskillful speech?
Alright, so you know that. Now, look for a second  for the process of
awakening is in investigation. What makes us do that? Entertainment,
justification, self-importance, anger, bonding. Yes, sometimes we do.
We ll talk about somebody else and put them down because it makes us
a little closer to this other person, or we do it for entertainment because
we re bored. And God spare us in this culture if we ever had nothing
to do and weren t entertained. It s horrible, you know! You come into
someone s house and if they can t be with you,  Here, I ll turn on the TV.
Would you like some music? Here s something to eat. You can read.
Anything but just waiting and being bored. Terrifying thing!
There are all these reasons that we do it. Let s start to study it in
our lives. Look at the moments. Don t judge it. We re just looking at
the principles of what makes happiness. Happiness or harmony comes
from understanding the principles of things. So this week let s also study
speech a little bit  start to look and see if you can find moments where
you feel your speech isn t so skillful. Just look at what s cooking inside
and what s going on when you do it.
I would like to change the name of Right Speech to  Speech from
the Heart. What keeps us from speaking the truth, and with the value
in what we know? What keeps us from speaking from the heart all the
time? What does it? The society does, you know. I mean, it s not a very
good example when you turn on the TV and most of what s there is false, [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]