Eightfold Path - Wise Speech

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We continue our series of talks from the book, Awakening the Buddha Within, by Lama Surya Das, and this morning I’ll talk about the third component of the Eightfold Path- Wise Speech.  I was having lunch a few years ago with some work colleagues.  There were eight of us sitting around a large round table at a restaurant, and across the table I heard one of the manager mention that his mother had been asking for a special birthday present.  He said that she wanted a port-o-pottie.   I thought what???  I asked to confirm, “She actually wanted one?”  “Yes,” he stated, “She had been asking for one for years.”  I was surprised.   “Where was she going to keep it?” I wondered.  He replied, “Oh, they have a large backyard--plenty of room!”  I just couldn’t imagine why someone would want a port-o-pottie in the backyard!   I finally quizzed him again, “she wants a port-o-pottie?”  Now, he look perplexed.  “No! She wants a border collie!”

What we say and what we hear are critical to how we perceive ourselves and the world.  It’s critical to how we create the sacredness within and around us.  As Lama Surya Das encourages, “everything you say can express your Buddha-nature” even the things you don’t.  Our words can be a tool for us to nurture ourselves and to serve others.  Thoughts and emotions arise, and we have a choice as to how and even if to express them.  Words have power, and yet so often, we throw them around as if they were worthless.  Words have value, as we can all attest to, if someone has ever said something to you that was very helpful or hurtful.

Words are often used to reinforce our ego, who we think we are.  What our story is all about.  I’ve been thinking about words a lot this last week as I prepare to go on a siltent retreat and say nothing for next seven days—it often seems difficult to survive without words.  Who would you be without your words, without your stories? 

The Buddha encouraged us to see Speech as part of the path of enlightenment.  We are encouraged to infuse our words with kindness and wisdom, using them to help, to support, to nurture.  The Buddha taught about talking in the following four ways:

1.       Speak the truth, tell no lies: How often do we assess if what we are about to say is true?  We can start with those outright lies and explore why they seem necessary.  Then, as we stay on the path of truth, we start to look at subtle ways that we lie to ourselves and to others, maybe not outright perhaps but in ways that serve our ego.

Listening is a key component of wise speech.  How can we listen more carefully, with more awareness, to better understand the truth.  One of the seven habits of highly effective people is “Seek first to understand, before being understood”.

2.       Use words to help, not harm:  I always think about Soap Operas when I think about wise speech;  basically soap operas could not exist if everyone was required to tell only the truth and to say only words that helped, not harmed.  Think about it.  If Sally told Jim that she was still married to Bob and was having Bob’s baby, and she told him that before she agreed to marry Jim.  there would be nothing to stay tuned for.  How are we unnecessarily stirring things up by the words that we use?

There is often judgment in our words that are used to serve our purposes.  Last year when we were studying the Lojong teachings, there was a slogan that said, “don’t talk about injured limbs”.  If we are all inseparably interconnected, then talking about another’s faults or weakness, is like talking about our own broken leg.  Of what value does it serve?

There’s a simple practice of focusing on using words to help, looking for an opportunity to praise someone for positive actions.  Think about this last week and the words that you said, and the effect they had.  When you told someone that they were doing a good job, that they looked great and gave a great presentation or told a great joke, whatever the sincere compliment might have been.   What if we made offering honest positive encouragement a part of our to-do list every single day?

3.       Don’t gossip or tell tales:  When the Buddha had all those monks and nuns living in close quarters, he had to create many rules that instructed them to not spend time gossiping about each other.  Lama Surya Das calls gossip, “junk food for the ego”.  Don’t we all sometimes get a little pleasure out of discussing the woes of others?  Maybe we’ve decided that they deserve it because of their past actions.  I often hear myself thinking when my friends screw up--if they had only listened to me!  Or maybe other people’s woes make us feel better about ourselves.  Well, at least I don’t have THAT problem!

We talk a lot about what stories we tell about ourselves.  It’s also helpful to look at these stories you tell about others.  Think about someone who annoys you.  How do you describe that person to others?  Why do you do that?  Think for a moment about your motives?  How might it feel different to say nothing or to look for the good?

4.       Avoid harsh abusive language, speak kindly:  There have been several research studies on partner relationships, and how harsh words can lead to harsh actions, and kind words can lead to kind actions.  Whenever you live with another human being, you both have the opportunity to annoy the heck out of each other.  We are constantly faced with choices about what to say, when to say it, and what the result will be.   We always have a choice about what we focus on.  The research shows that if a partner spends time looking for the good, focusing on the good, and praising the good, that is usually what they get more of.

Margaret Paul is a PhD who specializes in relationships.   She’s written a gazillion books and been on Oprah, and her message is one of simple kindness.  It is as simple as beginning by looking for the good, and examining our emotions before we respond. 

Lama Surya Das includes a great quote from Shantideva, who was an eighth-century Buddhist scholar and teacher. 

            Whenever I wish to move

            Or to speak,

            First, I shall examine my state of mind,

And firmly act in a suitable way.

These teachings on Wise Speech are not about being a doormat or never showing anger, but as Shantideva puts so well, they are encouraging us to examine our state of mind before we speak or act.  With presence and perspective, we will find wise speech within us.  And then we firmly act in a suitable way.

This week, you might try thinking of your cellphone as a spiritual tool.  Just by simply being aware of what you say AND being aware of how you listen. 

The Five Skandhas (aggregates)

(For podcast, click here)  (For the ITunes version, click here)  


We continue a series of talks from Awakening the Buddha Within by Lama Surya Das.  In the chapter entitled, “The First Noble Truth”, he goes into detail about the First Noble Truth, the very first teaching that the Buddha gave after he awakened.  As many of you know, the First Noble Truth is that Life is difficult.  Why does Life seem difficult?

Lama Surya Das identifies three kinds of difficulties we have: 

1.                  We don’t get what we think we want.  We want a certain job or house or relationship, thinking that will make life easier.  Without them, we might feel like life is difficult.  Sometimes, we get the job/house/relationship, and by doing so, we find that life gets more difficult instead of less.  Trying to arrange the world to make us happy doesn’t work for long, if at all.

2.                  Things change.  We are trying to get some stability in our life.  We want things to be predictable.  Maybe we find some small sense of security, and then, things change.  This is the reality of the impermanence of all “things”. 

3.                  The flawed nature of conditioned existence:  Conditioned existence is an amalgam of “things” and experiences that seem so real, but are really just an aggregation of all the “things” and experiences created by the karma of the past.

 

The Buddhist teachings break down the living experience into five components, called five aggregates (skandhas in Sanskrit), or combinations.  Although we will discuss them as if they were distinct in and of themselves, we will see how they work in concert with each other to form this experience we call living:

1.                  Form or matter:  external and internal matter, the physical world, the material body and the physical organs.  In early Buddhist literature, it includes the components of earth, water, fire, air, and space that are included in both the external world and the internal components of your body.  Think about what is inside you—blood, bile, bones, muscles, etc.  When we look at ourselves at these smaller components, we can see how we are in a constant state of change.  Blood flows, fluids and solids come in and go out, bones and muscles build up and break down.  We are not as solid as we might seem.

2.                   Sensation or feeling, physical or mental:  that which we experience through contact of the six senses with the external world (the five senses plus the mind).  Sensations arise through the contact of the eye with visible forms, the ear with sound, the nose with odor, the tongue with taste, the body with tangible things, and the mind with thoughts.

It is particularly important to understand that mind in these teachings is a sense organ or faculty, just like an eye or an ear. Some might think of the mind like a spirit or soul, but in Buddhism, it is seen as just another sense organ or faculty, combined with all the others that make up our experience.

Our senses also create the initial rise of pleasure or pain. The senses lead to craving, either to acquire something pleasurable or avoid something painful.

3.                  Perception, discrimination:  perception registers whether an object is recognized or not (for instance, the sound of a horn or the shape of a ball). Perception is what enables us to label the world around us.   What do you like and dislike?  The Sanskrit word, samjna, is translated as the "knowledge that puts together." It is the capacity to conceptualize and recognize things by associating them with other things. For example, we recognize windows as “window” because of previous experiences with glass that lets in light.

When we see something for the first time, we inevitably google our brain associations with the new object.  If I ask you to reach for your gizzard, you would probably think about chickens and other birds or whatever past experience you might have had with the word or something similar.   If you walk into a gym and see a piece of equipment, you will likely label it as an exercise machine, based on the context.  It is with perception that we label everything and everyone around us, include ourselves.

4.                  Mental formations, impulses, biases, prejudices, volition will/intentions/motivation:  all types of mental habits, thoughts, ideas, opinions, prejudices, compulsions, and decisions triggered by an object.  All volitional actions, good and bad, are included in the aggregate of mental formations.   Our actions follow our mental formations.  We have an idea, an opinion, a bias, then we often act upon that bias, sometimes unaware that it may not be true. The aggregate of mental formations is associated with karma, because volitional acts create karma. From here, we form interests and attractions, aversions and fears.  These mental formations begin to seem like who we are.

5.                  Consciousness or discernment,:  the basis of all experience.  It is important to understand that consciousness depends on the other skandhas and does not exist independently from them. It is an awareness but not a recognition. This awareness is not sensation, which is the second skandha. For most of us, this is a different way to think about "consciousness."  Consciousness is not special, above the other skandhas.  And it is not the self.  It is part of the interplay between the other aggregates, this interaction that causes an illusion of a solid, separate self.

“Seeing through the illusion of our self, helps us accept the tenuous and unreliable nature of reality.”  Lama Surya Das

As we break down the component parts of this thing called, “me”, we begin to see that we are more like a river than a mountain.  We ebb and flow and move and change.  We a process, not a thing at all.

So what is Buddha Nature?  We talk about Buddha Nature being innately in each of us, as always being there.  Where does it fit into the Five Skandhas?  It might be helpful to think of Buddha Nature as a pure light that shines continuously.  Just like the sun, it might be covered up by clouds at times, but the light is still there.  When we think about harnessing the power of the sun, we must create some catalyst, some mechanism, to convert the light into power.  With the light of Buddha Nature, we are the mechanism by which Buddha Nature is converted into power.  Just like with atomic power, it can be used to relieve suffering or cause suffering.  We choose. 

Buddha Nature shining through us creates the power of skillful means.  We are the light of the world.  The inner light is permanent, it is Unconditioned, therefore innate Buddha nature is constant.  Lama Surya Das states, “Actualizing the luminous formless and intangible core is what awakening is all about.”

Suzuki Roshi, a great Zen master said, “There are no enlightened individuals; there is only enlightened activity.”