WELL-SAID SPEECH!

The Noble Buddha has left us 84,000 discourses. Nowadays the world’s religious leaders and many scholars, and individuals agree and support that the prestigious teachings of the Buddha are right, beneficial and precious. We need to analyze this carefully for sure.

As we are the followers of the Noble Buddha, we need to carefully study His teachings as instructed by Him. The Buddha had guided us with many discourses concerning with the Right Speech. The Buddha Himself practiced two kinds of speech which are pleasant and beneficial, and refused four kinds of speech which are unbeneficial and unpleasant. There are six kinds of speech among human beings. If we want to make a good use of our speech then we need to carefully learn if our speeches follow to the Buddha as He directed.

The speeches that the Buddha refused to practice are as follows:

1. Unbeneficial, wrong and unpleasant speech
2. Unbeneficial, wrong and pleasant speech
3. Unbeneficial, right and unpleasant speech
4. Unbeneficial, right and pleasant speech

The Buddha never spoke of these four kinds of speech as these are at a disadvantage. How many times we have spoken of these unbeneficial and pleasant speeches to others- we have to review ourselves. There are many people who lost their value because of these speeches. We need to think wisely, and speak before we do. Although mostly Burmese people are proud of saying themselves that they are Buddhists and followers of the Buddha, they never do as the Buddha instructed. They are extremely often practicing and using the unsuitable and unbeneficial speeches which were refused by the Buddha.

When meeting each others, they waste their precious time on talking about pursuing of playing lottery, soccer, bulls-game, cock-game and gossips, and some people are proud of and enjoy themselves to talking about such unbeneficial things. This is such a shame- they don’t even know: because of his or her unpleasant, unbeneficial speeches, one would lose oneself, the value of his or her village, town, country and the Buddha’s Sasana in which we believe. They do not think about this deeply. And so, because of this, many Burmese people lost their value and were looked down upon wherever they arrived. The only reason for this matter is because of their unpleasant, unbeneficial speeches: they become never united, breaking the relationships, and they cannot be patience and get arguments, and ultimately become to fight each others. It is essential to learn what kind of speech the Buddha taught if we want to live a valuable life.

The Buddha taught us two kinds of speech to practice as follows:

1. Beneficial, right and pleasant speech
2. Beneficial, right and unpleasant speech

Why the Buddha taught these two kinds is because they are both right and beneficial. Under the Buddha’s time, one Brahmin had ever asked a question to the Buddha as he could not understand well with the statement of beneficial, right and unpleasant speech although he had no special reason(?) to ask about the first statement. At that time the Buddha explained the Brahmin with an example asking him a question that, “What will you do when you see one of your children who has swallowed a broken piece of glass?”, and the Brahmin answered, “I will control my son’s head carefully and get it out until I get it although he is bleeding.” The Buddha asked him why he do like this, he answered, “I have to do it because of his survival although he is crying and does not like it.”  And the Buddha told the Brahmin that, “Yes, you are right, Brahmin. I also have to do like this for the sake of the people's benefits although they do not like some of my speeches.” Once there appeared a student monk who put this into practice in Sri Lanka. There lived a monk scholar who was always teaching to his class full of students. Because of his teaching many students practiced and became Arahants. Among them, one of the students who learned his teacher’s situation knew that his teacher has not realized certain high stages of attainment, and he approached his teacher and asked, “Sir, may I ask you a verse, when are you free?” “I have no free time. I have full time classes.” The teacher monk answered. And then the student continued to ask, “Will you be free at your would-be-dead time?” When the teacher monk was asked this question, although he did not like this unpleasant speech but right and beneficial for him, he learned his situation and became an Arahant realizing certain high stages of attainment. But now in Burma, the Sangha  Maha Nayaka Committee (a state-sponsored Buddhist monks’ organization),  has issued orders restricting monks again and again even though we pointed out and reported them, they never learn real situations. They even get angry with us  - this is such a real shame. While many saints are practicing and following the Buddha’s teachings and dedicated to Him, in Burma from the Sangha  Maha Nayaka Monks to the lowerest level of people are practicing against the Buddha. As a result of this, Burma remains backward-looking day by day around the world and Burmese are looked down upon, abused and feel inferior. The Buddha taught us the art of speech as it is of vital importance but mostly Burmese people never follow and practice the teachings of the Buddha and speak the opposite, bad, hash, unbeneficial and unpleasant speeches which are against the Buddha. To be able to speak of right, good, beneficial and precious speeches, it is worthy to read books, study and learn, listening to the Dhamma talks, listening to the literature talks, approaching the scholars, asking questions what we want to know, and trying to get knowledge and education. We have to keep the highest moral inside, if we want a good result. It will be unworthy by pursuing of playing lottery, soccer, gossiping, words of Bodaw (That is a kind of saint in worldly affairs) and medium. As the Buddha did not want us to lose our value because of the unbeneficial words, He again and again taught us as follows:

1. To abstain from false speech; do not tell lies or deceive.
2.  Not to slander others or speak in a way that causes disharmony or enmity.
3. To abstain from rude, impolite or abusive language.
4.  Not to indulge in idle talk or gossip.

To be good at the art of speech, to be able to speak of precious speech, the Buddha had taught us throughout the Jataka stories. The Buddha’s teachings must be put into practiced, rather than merely satisfy reading, studying by hard and memorizing about them. Merely satisfying hearsay and reading without practicing is similar to a monkey that found a coconut, not knowing what to do, the monkey ate the nutshell and felt very bitter it, and ultimately the monkey threw the coconut. And the foreign countries knowing the interior taste of the coconut, peeling the nutshell, enjoy not only the taste of the milky liquid but also the white flesh of the coconut. It is unworthy of ourselves meeting the Buddha’s Sasana if we  merely enjoy the nutshell and the exterior would end our lives as the mogha purisa (misguided persons). The present author has pointed out this article of what the Buddha has taught with dedication to those who want to walk from the wrong path to the right one.

    May you all be good citizens for the nation, nationality and religion abandoning the wrong way and walking up to the right way!

                                                                                                   Translated by Mg Myat Zaw  from original

                                                                                                     source of King Zero(Buddhist University)