Power of the spoken word

By Alec Robertson
 

We often tend to underestimate the power of speech and we exercise very little control over our faculty of speech. This should not be so. We have all been very greatly hurt by someone’s words at some time of our life. And similarly, we have been encouraged by the words of another. In the sphere of politics, we can see how those who are able to communicate effectively are able to influence people tremendously for better or for worse. Hitler, Churchill and Martin Luther King were all accomplished speakers who were able to influence millions with their words.

It is said that a harsh word can wound more deeply than weapons. A gentle word can change the heart and mind of the most hardened criminal. Probably more than anything else, the faculty of speech differentiates man from animals. So, if one is to develop a society in which harmony, well being, communication and co-operation are goals which are to be realised, one must control, cultivate and utilise one’s faculty of speech positively.

All the rules of good conduct involve respect that is founded upon an understanding of equality. In this context, right speech involves respect for truth and respect for the welfare of others. If one speaks with these criteria in mind, one will cultivate right speech and through this one will achieve greater harmony within the society.

Buddhism speaks of four aspects of right speech. Right speech means to avoid lying, to avoid back biting or slander, to avoid harsh speech, and to avoid idle talk.

The Buddha explained lying is intimately associated with one’s practice of wholesome actions, with one’s good conduct, with one’s character, once we are confident that we can act in one way and speak in another, then we will not be afraid to act badly, because we will be confident that we can cover up our evil actions by lying. Lying therefore opens the door to all kinds of unwholesome actions. Slander, it creates rift between friends. It creates pain and discord. So just as one would not want to be divided against one’s friend by slander, one ought not to slander another.

So one ought not to abuse others with harsh words, but on the contrary should speak courteously to others as one would like to be spoken to oneself. Regarding idle talk, often you hear of people saying we cannot even indulge in a bit of idle talk. It is no doubt that it is bad. Here the kind of idle talk that is particularly indicated is malicious gossip, diverting oneself, entertaining oneself recounting the faults and failings of others.

The Buddha once said “pleasant speech is sweet as honey, truthful speech is beautiful like a flower, and wrong speech is unwholesome like filth”. So let us try for our own good and that of others to cultivate right speech, respect for truth, and respect for others welfare. It is said that a Bodhi Satta can break all the moral precepts except the pledge to speak the truth. The reason for this is very profound, and reveals that the commitment to truth has a significance transcending the domain of ethics and even mental purification, taking us to the domain of knowledge and being. Truthful speech provides in the sphere of Inter-personal communication, a parallel to wisdom in the sphere of private understanding. The two are respectively the outward and inward modalities of the same commitment to what is real.

Truthful speech establishes a correspondence between our own inner being and the real nature of phenomena allowing wisdom to rise up and fathom their real nature. Thus, much more than an ethical principle devotion to truthful speech is a matter of taking our stand on reality rather than illusion, on the truth grasped by wisdom rather than the fantasies woven by desire.

Slanderous speech is intended to create enmity and division, to alienate one person or a group from another. The motive behind such speech is generally aversion, resentment of a rival’s success or virtues. The intention to tear down his image in the mind by verbal denigrations. Other moves may enter the picture as well: the cruel intention of causing hurt to others the evil desire to win affection for oneself the perverse delight in seeing friends divided.

The opposite of slander, as the Buddha indicates, is speech that promotes friendship and harmony. Such speech originates a mind of loving kindness and sympathy. It wins the trust and affection of others, who feel they can confine in one without fear that their disclosures will be used against them. Beyond the obvious benefits that it brings in this present life, it is said that abstaining from slander has as its karmic result the gain of a retinue of friends who can never be turned against one by the slanderous words of others.

Harsh speech uttered in anger intended to cause pain. Such speech can assume in three different forms. One is abusive speech: scolding, reviling, or reproving another angrily with bitter words. A second is insult: hurting another by ascribing to him some offensive quality which detracts from his dignity. A third is sacrasm: speaking to someone in a way which ostensibly lauds him but with such a tone or twist of phrasing that the ironic intent becomes clear and causes pain.

Idle chatter is pointless talk, speech that lacks purpose or depth. Such speech communicate nothing of value but only stirs up the defilements in one’s own mind and in others.

The Buddha advises that idle talk should be curbed and speech restricting as much as possible to matters of genuine importance. In the case of a monk, his words should be selective and concerned.

Lay persons should be more affectionate and have polite conversations with acquaintances, and to talk in connection with their line of work. But even then they should be mindful not to let the conversation stray into pastures where the restless mind, always eager for something sweet or spicy to feed on, might find the chance to indulge its defiling propensities.

The traditional exegesis of abstaining from idle chatter refers only to avoiding engagement in such talk oneself. But today it might be of valid to give this factor a different slant made imperative by certain developments unknown in the days of the Buddha and the ancient commentators. This is the angle of avoiding exposure to idle chatter, constantly bombarding with through the new media of communication created by modern technology.

An incredible array of devices-television, radio, newspapers, pulp journals, the cinema-turns out a continuous stream of needless information and distracting entertainment the net effect of which is to leave the mind passive vacant and sterile.

All these developments, naively accepted as “progress”, threaten to blunt our aesthetic and spiritual sensitivities and deafen us to the higher call of the contemplative life. A services aspirant on the path to liberation has to be very discerning in what he allows himself to be exposed to.

He would greatly serve his aspirations by including these sources of amusement in the category of amusement and needless information in the category of idle chatter and making an effort to avoid them.

 

(This article was written by late Deshabandu Alec Robertson Sent by Mrs: Alec Robertson for publication)