working with our speech

A veteran American born Buddhist monk in Thailand (Thanissaro Bhikkhu) commented once about the Buddhist practice of right speech. He said he his teacher once told him “if you can’t control your mouth, there’s no way you can hope to control your mind.” 

The Buddha set out some specific guidelines for considerate, compassionate communication in the Abhayarajakumara Sutta, where he suggests we keep these five reflections in our mind and use them to evaluate what we are about to say.

Is what we are about to say:

factually accurate? 

necessary? 

kindly intentioned? 

beneficial to all concerned? 

timely? 

Thanissaro Bhikkhu comments that “right speech means speaking in ways that are trustworthy, harmonious, comforting, and worth taking to heart. When you make a practice of these positive forms of right speech, your words become a gift to others.” 

For me, the most difficult part of practicing right speech happens when I try to display a sense of humor. Many of us are so used to getting laughs with some exaggeration, sarcasm, ethnic stereotyping (especially here in Hawaii) and just pure silliness. These all would all seem to fall into the category of wrong speech from a strict Buddhist perspective, I suppose. 

I feel we all do need to lighten up about our lives, after all isn’t that why they call it enlightenment? Working with our speech as the Buddha recommends is certainly a challenge. We can definitely learn from the Buddha’ guidelines. One big challenge is to use humor in a non harming way that brings folks together.
 
How about this one from Swami Beyondananda:
 
“As if global warring isn’t enough to worry about, now there’s global warming. It would be sad indeed to have come this far, only to see the headline: “Human Race Ends In a Dead Heat.”
 
Or when asked about vegetarianism, Ram Dass was said to have remarked “What comes out of your mouth is a lot more important than what goes into it.”