From the article: Right Speech
What does "right speech" mean to you? Has Buddhism changed the way you communicate? Can you think of a time in your life when someone's words made a big difference? Please share! Share Your Experiences
Right speech
- Right speech as i feel it is truthful and life giving. It is caring, straight forward, peaceful and never vulgar or hypocritical. It has always very high intentions . Buddha himself,it seems told a lie to give life to the weak.
- —Guest Raj
graham
- I'm still trying to learn about people in all their forms. I have all my faculties and I'm able to make sensible rational decisions but there are many I meet who are vulnerable. I try to make sure I never ever prey on such folk. Though their hurt and pain is often well hidden.
- —Guest graham
Stumbling on a rock upon the Path
- When I speak, I try to be mindful of the Three Poisons - Greed, Anger/Aggression, Ignorance. I learned Right Speech is avoid lying, avoid swearing, avoid harsh words, do not engage in frivolous speech, and avoid gossip. I have definitely changed in how I communicate not only with others but myself. Sometimes I'm very hard on myself when I stumble. I chastise myself when I don't meet the ideal I have set for myself. It is then I am mindful, in meditation, we are specifically told, "Don't be angry when your mind wanders from your breath. It will. Come back gently to breathing." So I try to do the same when I stumble on a stone on the Path. What I say to myself about myself is critical. Instead of chastising, I say, "You know better. Try to do better." When I seak to others, I remember the application of Right Speech. Many times, I find I have little to say. :)
- —Guest Cord
Right Speech
- At the moment I am searching for a cure for my self destruction skills. When I look back I can see a clear path of small negative actions that lead to a sudden change in my life and others around me. Many good actions are cancelled out buy twice as many bad actions. All this seems to occur with my internal conversation and the negative stuff is not stopped. I am going to practice the art of the tight speech by ensuring that my internal speech is kind, positive and helpfull. If I can not deliver this then I will stay silent until I can.
- —Guest David Jago
How I Practice Right Speech..
- Personally, I try to think of myself in the other person's shoes. I also try to "imagine" how I sound like from the view of another person. Thus, I have realized how I represent myself, what I surround myself with, and what I surround OTHERS with. This has helped me stop cursing, stop gossiping, stop putting down other people, insulting them, and the list goes on. Although a lot more work needs to be done on my behalf, I do believe that I am on the right path! :D I also believe that one should not judge another, becuase no matter how much you THINK you know, you just really don't know all of it, and in the end you'll just say something to make everything worse. PS: I love all the comments posted above!! I believe that just by reading them, I have already recieved new methods on how to practice 'Righ Speech'. Everyone above has posted something true and useful that I feel that I can use! Thank you!
- —Guest Leo Bar-Chandra
practical living
- On a practical note, two methods I employ to try and keep myself aware of Right Speech is: 1. Never say anything behind someone's back that I wouldn't be willing to say to their face. 2. When I need to resolve a problem with someone I always take some time to reflect on how I would want to be approached with the problem/complaint. It always gentles my approach. I think of a quote by Joubet, "The goal of an argument is not victory, but progress."
- —Guest Josephine
trying....hard...
- It is usually common for women to critisize or envy other women, resulting in words of hatred being spoken. Anytime i am speaking words of evil in the back of my head i know im doing wrong. Right speech is a skill which needs to be mastered.
- —Guest Rocio
What is right speech
- I am not sure how this practice works in difficult work environments. I am one of 2 women in an all male (65 men) workplace. We don't blaspheme the men, but are always blasphemed and verbally marginalized. Open minded speech, compassion, tolerance just seems to be traits to prove our inadequacy. We are blamed for all delays, errors, false starts, no one listens to our comments or even acknowledges that they were made. We are so voiceless that right speech is totally a concept, we aren't able to even exercise that practice. How does one exercise Right Speech when no one is listening ? If we cursed others, ranted or raved during the day...that would be expected. But stepping back and trying to see what is happenening is not a good thing. Immediate fierce reaction is the norm. We both like the work, but the environment leaves much to be desired. We are starting to feel like we are enemies in the workplace, the more competent we become, the more hated we are.
- —Guest KAREN
The seed of loving-kindness
- If you choose to be "above all else, loving-kind", right thought will be created. When right thought manifests, right speech is inevitable. Always try to think the best of another as you never can tell from the surface the extent of their suffering. If conflict is likely to ensue, try to focus on kindness; you have the power to create peace. When you find yourself most challenged, remember the lotus. Loving-kindess is the seed from which it grows.
- —Guest Felicity
right speech
- Its interesting to me this guy would separate "right speech" from the more general right being. But given that, I'd explain it as getting lucky in the moment, get something good done with an interaction with someone, light from some place fizzes... will, goes forth, and comes back smiling.
- —byronpeterson
Centre of the everything
- It seems very hard not to view oneself as the centre of everything, and its partly through our speech that we create this view. From birth we learn to use sound to demand what we want and we often succeed in achieving it. As we grow we learn to use words as weapons, we also use them to manipulate and we can from time to time use them to enrich others lives. Buddhas exhortation to use RIGHT SPEECH to me means to examine wether or not we are using words skillfully in bringing harmony where there is discord or love where there is hate. The creation of the world we live in is entirely of our own making, i for one would rather try to live in a positive & caring environment by the skillful use of speech and a positive use of words. Its hard to do but it is worth the effort.
- —Crack_Fox
There seems to be a disconnect here...
- There appears to be a problem with the discription of Right Speech here. It's almost like you're saying that there's only one person involved. In reality, there are at least two people. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe speech consists of the one who speaks and the one who listens. I could say the same thing to two people and be accused of lying to one and telling the truth to the other. To me, Right Speech requires me to create Right Understanding. If what I say causes someone to stray from the truth, I've lied, regardless of the "objective" truth of my words. In the Immeasurable Meanings Sutra, the Buddha says, “In these more than forty years, I have not yet revealed the truth.” That is because speaking the Truth would, in fact, be lying, due to the listeners' state of mind.
- —JoeBuddha
The Evil Tongue
- In talmudic tradition, the opposite of Right Speech is known as "lashon ha-ra", meaning, the "evil tongue." An evil tongue spreads hatred, lies and, most of all, slander. It is a weapon of destruction--with today's media, of mass destruction. As I recall, the Gospels have the same message in saying that it is more important what comes out of person's mouth than what goes into it. A relative of mine has for many years listened to a certain well known talk radio personality who devotes his career to spreading rage--perhaps the same one that taxi driver was listening to. Though my relative is in most respects a good man, he spends every Thanksgiving get-together ranting and raving about everything and anything. What we say and how we say it truly is of the utmost importance. If it were not for the fact that my relative is married to a level-headed and fair-minded woman with infinite patience, I fear he would have gone completely off the deep end long ago.
- —Guest David
right speech
- 1- Seeing my own faults and not those of others. This is difficult. A work in progress, although I have made great strides in realizing this task. If I ever refer to another person's faults I like to think that it serves the person of correcting the fault rather than condemning it. Sometimes that's a hard distinction to make. I like to think that the purpose is to correct but perhaps there is a surreptitious negative quality lurking. 2-- If you cannot say anything kind about another person, say nothing. Try to pay more attention to a person's good qualities but be compassionate if you must mention another's missteps.
- —GeorgeDeane
I practice right speech
- I have learned to stop cursing as much as before, and to stop calling people names.
- —Guest Pat
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