Vet Judy

Words can travel thousands of miles. May my words create mutual understanding and love. May they be as beautiful as gems, as lovely as flowers.

Thich Nhat Hanh

In the Eight Limb Path of Yoga the Yamas are 5 moral restraints. The first of the Yama’s was Ahisma and we have discussed that before on the blog. The second Yama is Satya, which is TRUTH.

In Buddha’s teachings the Four Noble Truths are called the Path(Marga). The path leads us to refrain from things that cause us to suffer. This path is called the Noble Eightfold Path. Translated it is right view, right thinking, right speech, right livelihood, right diligence, right mindfulness, and right concentration.

There is overlap here. The practice of Satya means being truthful in all things. In the West when we speak of truthfulness, we often think of how that translates into truth in speaking only. Living truthfully encompasses so much more, but it is a good place to start.

An explanation of right speech can essentially be broken down into:

   1> Speak truthfully: Which means calling a spade a spade. The most important aspect of this is to remember that if your speech creates internal discord for another, if may be classified as truth, but is still not considered to be right speech. The truth must always be presented to others in a way they can tolerate and accept to be considered as following the premise of Buddha’s teachings.

    2> Don’t speak with a forked tongue. This translates into don’t tell different stories to different people. The presentations can be different provided adherence to the truth is the sole guide.

    3> Don’t speak cruelty. Don’t shout, slander, talk hatred, or otherwise say things that cause other people to suffer. Words are powerful and should not be used carelessly.

    4> Don’t exaggerate or embellish. This means don’t make it sound worse or better than it actually was.

So how is it that we can practice Satya (truth) in yogic philosophy and right speech from Buddha’s teachings at the same time.

For a day: try only opening your mouth when you can use calm and loving words. This is difficult because our habit energies can pull us along as if we are powerless. We seem to be running always. Always striving and never arriving. Stillness is not found in the running. It is in stillness that we find our truth and our ability to be kind, compassionate and loving. It is not in following our habit energies.

For a day: try out compassionate listening. This is listening without the premise of “solving the person’s problem, without the need to “understand them”, without the need to “offer solutions”. It is listening with the sole intent of relieving another’s suffering. In can be very difficult to stay in compassionate listening and should likely be considered an art form. This is especially difficult if the person is grossly misrepresenting the facts as you know them, if they are demonstrating condemnation towards you or others you care about, or are spewing out facts based on wrong information. In these last few instances is when you really need to access the strength that comes from stillness and meditation, to leave the ego out of it, and to cease your need to be right, to be heard, or to be understood yourself.

It is in understanding that we end up being understood.

If you are interested in understanding further Buddha’s teachings, a really great reference from which these concepts were taken, is The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching