Right Speech

“Right Speech” is one of the precepts on Buddha’s Eightfold Path. That means no lying, divisive or abusive speech. (Take away "no" in this little list and there you have the First Precept of the cult religion of Trumpism.) Language, alongside bi-pedalism and opposable thumbs and the capacity to feel exalted emotions, are evolution’s gifts to human beings, a gift we mostly squander, abuse, ignore. Each time we refuse, whether it be a tiny transgression of unimaginative speech (“you’re awesome!”) or an out-and out lie (“you’re awesome!”), we tip the needle from Buddha to the other one. 

 

So putting on my "English Teacher" hat which I never officially earned except from thousands of hours of reading and writing, today's lesson is about the important of Right Speech. Not only in the spiritual sense, but in the articulate, eloquent and poetic sense as well. Related to my “Plain Talk” post, I found this marvelous quote from Bertrand Russell, suggesting we speak more clearly and succinctly. As an example, he asks us to trudge through this over-inflated sentence filled with the rocky pitfalls of technical jargon and try to figure out what it means:

 

‘Human beings are completely exempt from undesirable behaviour-patterns only when certain prerequisites, not satisfied except in a small percentage of actual cases, have, through some fortuitous concourse of favourable circumstances, whether congenital or environmental, chanced to combine in producing an individual in whom many factors deviate from the norm in a socially advantageous manner.’ 

 

How’s it going? Out of compassion for your confusion, he kindly translates it into speakable English.

 

‘All men are scoundrels, or at any rate almost all. The men who are not must have had unusual luck, both in their birth and in their upbringing.’ 

 

Then there’s this lovely passage from writer Ursula Le Guin:

 

“Socrates said, “The misuse of language induces evil in the soul.” He wasn’t talking about grammar. To misuse language is to use it the way politicians and advertisers do, for profit, without taking responsibility for what the words mean. Language used as a means to get power or make money goes wrong: it lies. 

 

Language used as an end in itself, to sing a poem or tell a story, goes right, goes towards the truth. A writer is a person who cares what words mean, what they say, how they say it. Writers know words are their way towards truth and freedom, and so they use them with care, with thought, with fear, with delight. By using words well they strengthen their souls. Story-tellers and poets spend their lives learning that skill and art of using words well. And their words make the souls of their readers stronger, brighter, deeper.”

 

Praise be to those who chose eloquence and speaking on behalf of love and kindness, truth  and beauty.