Buddhist Hour
Script No. 454
Broadcast live on
3MDR 97.1FM
9 PM to 10 PM
On Friday 17 November 2006 CE 2550 Buddhist
Era
This script is
entitled:
"Lifetimes of
Learning "
Class 19 - Exploring the Perfection of
Truthfulness
The seventh Perfection in Buddhist practice is truthfulness or
sacca in Pali.
In ‘Heart of a Buddha’ it is written:
The gift of Truth overcomes all gifts.
The joy of Truth overcomes all
pleasures.
The taste of Truth overcomes all sweetness.
The loss of desire
overcomes all sorrows.
When we examine the subject of truth as a Buddhist we will see that it really lies at the core of everything we call Buddhism and particularly the life and teachings of the founder of our religion, the Buddha.
What did the Prince renounce the world and leave his royal lifestyle to search for? What did the Bodhisattva find out sitting under the Bodhi tree on the night of his enlightenment? What did he teach to his disciples for the following years of his life which was his gift to the world? What is our motive for practicing Buddhism 2500 years later?
Many people have in the past sought the truth. It is what they have sought the truth about, and how they have gone about finding it that has determined the knowledge or learning they gained from their quest. Buddha sought the truth about why sentient beings suffer and whether there is a way to escape or avoid the sufferings that are experienced in life.
We need to approach truth and truthfulness with care and understanding in order to penetrate into the real meaning of the Buddha's teaching. We have to set ourselves up through our Buddhist practice to know the way things really are directly for ourselves.
In Buddhism we divide knowledge into two categories. The first we call worldly knowledge (lokiya in Pali) which is knowledge about worldly matters such as the learning we do at school or the learning done in science and business - all the knowledge to do with worldly events and activities. The second category we call supra-mundane wisdom (lokuttara in Pali) which is knowledge about the Path leading to liberation including the Four Noble Truths, the Enlightenment Factors, the Ten Perfections and the unconditioned mind, nibanna or nirvana in Sanskrit.
In Buddhism we value both types of knowledge and learning as both are needed as the basis of being able to live skillfully in the world, and to use our precious opportunity of human rebirth to abandon the causes of our sufferings. So how do we set ourselves up to know the truth about things, or in other words, create the right causes and mental conditions where we see things clearly as they really are.
Practicing truthfulness in our thoughts, words and deeds clearly leads us to the right outcomes. Keeping the precept of refraining from lying is fundamental to learning and developing good understanding.
The act of lying is an act of distorting the truth or distorting the reality in a way that suits the person lying. The act of distorting the truth creates kamma for the person who lies so that in the future they will find it more difficult to receive the truth in their own minds.
Either people lie to them, or they get poor information about things they wish to know, or if they are told the correct information they will tend to not believe it, discount it or mistake what they heard. Even in a worldly sense it is important to find out the truth about things.
It is a common occurrence to find that a person has believed you said something; but it wasn’t what you actually said. Quite frequently we find out we have acted on some incorrect information about something and so we have wasted a lot of time, or bought something we didn’t need, or went somewhere to meet someone and got the time or place wrong. And so on. It happens to us regularly. These examples of mis-information we get in our minds are caused by giving out mis-information or lying to others in the past.
The Chu Fa Chi Yao Sutra says that:
"Lying obscures the truth and carries us farther and farther away from it. Lying creates innumerable obstacles to finding the way to liberation." - Being Good (Hsing Yun 1998) 2.
Why does one lie?
There are many reasons why we may have this tendency towards unskillful speech. It could be just lack of attentiveness and lack of intention to keep the precept to refrain from lying. We have kammic causes from our past of not keeping the precept to refrain from lying, so there is a latent tendency to do it. We may have the habit from our childhood so again we have a disposition to continue the habit. We can override this kamma by applying mindfulness of our present action and speech to refrain from that kamma and not lie.
Lying is often done in an attempt to try to get around the eight worldly conditions. That is, lying to avoid being blamed for something, or to court praise. Lying done for some apparent gain and then lies to ward off some loss. The same for the pairs of honour and dishonor, and happiness and unhappiness.
So we lie seeking some worldly benefit but, unknown to the mind that lies, we are moving further and further away from many things which we really need for our well-being and happiness, such as being able to understanding things clearly and not being confused, getting accurate information, finding out important information in a timely manner, and ease of learning on the Buddha Dhamma Path.
In the Upasakashila Sutra it says that
"lying leads to poor speaking abilities". 2.
Lying leads to not being believed or trusted, not only because people found out a person lied in the past, but because of the working of kamma from earlier times. Some peoples words are listened to attentively with respect, others are not.
In Venerable Narada Thera's ‘The Buddha and His Teachings’ it is written:
{A Bodhisattva}...does not use flattery to win the hearts of others, does not exalt himself to win their admiration, does not hide his defects or vainly exhibit his virtues. The praiseworthy he praises without malice, the blameworthy he blames judiciously, not with contempt but out of compassion. Even the truth he does not always utter. Should such utterance not be conducive to the good and happiness of others, then he remains silent. If any truth seems beneficial to others, he utters it, however detrimental to himself it may be. And he honours the word of others as he honours his own. (Narada 1988) 3.
In ‘Heart of a Buddha’ it is written:
If you know anything that is hurtful and untrue, do not say it.
If you know anything that is helpful but untrue, do not say it.
If you know anything that is hurtful but true, do not say it.
If you know anything that is helpful and true, find the right time. 1.
So let us consider some of the more subtle ways we may be lying to ourselves and others without realizing it.
Globalizing
Examples of this often involve words like "always" and "everything". You can hear them in statements like: "She always criticizes me" or "Everything I did stuffed up today".
Angry minds, for example, tend to use statements like this rather than truthful statements because the logic system of anger is often based on blowing things way out of proportion or over reacting to events.
It may seem more justified to be angry with someone who is "always criticizing me" but no one criticizes another person 24 hours a day. The expression is a lie.
There are many statements we use like this everyday in common parlance which, when considered, turn out to be untrue.
Even when statements are not exaggerations but just a conviction a person is holding still we need to be careful. There is a big difference between saying, for example, "Ford cars are better than Holden cars" rather than saying "I believe Ford cars are better than Holden cars". The difference is in the second case the words used are safeguarding the truth of your words.
The first statement could be wrong, depending on what criteria are used to judge what makes a car better. It may seem inconsequential however it is this type of attention to truthfulness which builds the right kamma and conditions to understand the truth about things.
Awfulizing
Examples of this is when we use emotive words such as awful, terrible, horrible and shocking to express how we feel about minor things which have happened. "You should have seen the awful mess she left in the kitchen for me to clean up". "He's got this terrible habit of leaving wet towels on the bathroom floor." "He said some ridiculous things to me this morning"
Often this type of statement is said by a person who is trying to make a case for themselves or a case against another person and such emotive words are used to boost the grounds for complaint against the other person.
Words have a clearly defined meaning which can be used as an accurate representation of what has happened or what you wish to communicate. As we move further and further away from the real dictionary meaning of words in our daily usage of them we are creating the kamma of distorting what really happened by our unskillful use and choice of inappropriate words.
Words are building blocks of our communication and understanding so it is better to have a big vocabulary and respect for the actual meaning of words to be able to describe and explain things clearly and truthfully.
Generalizing
"The bosses are all the same"
"I am really bad at sport"
"I don't like
classical music"
These statements are 100% all or nothing comments about something, and they are common enough, but they are seldom accurate or truthful.
Slandering and "Playing Blemish"
Slandering others comes from the root of hate or greed. Slandering another person often comes from the motive of making ourselves look good, or to produce some gain for ourselves at the slandered persons expense. Its objective is to denigrate another person, put them down or belittle them, and by comparison, because we have identified their fault, we must be superior to them.
Slandering is also used by persons to attack things they don't like personally, without accounting for whether there is any truth in the statements being made. For example people regularly slander politicians as a group regardless of the tireless work they perform in governing the country and regardless that some politicians are intelligent, sincere and genuine persons.
The slander concentrates on a few aspects of behaviour which we may find disagreeable and ignores all other activities and benefits which may be associated with the object of the slander. Sure, there are things which we can point to regarding the faults of others, but slander never acknowledges a balanced view. It is always lopsided and selfish.
Playing blemish is the idle behaviour of finding fault with things or persons and using that as the basis of conversations with others.
Hype
This is where a person is acting with excessive buzz or noise on their minds. These type of minds tend to sensationalize things or hype them up and that is where truth gets abandoned in favour of more buzz.
Fantasizing
Fantasizing happens when our minds lose contact with the present moment. Instead of being mindful of what is happening moment by moment, our minds play with thoughts of the past or future. It is only through practicing mindfulness of the present that we will be able to develop minds which can see things as they really are.
Flattery
Master Hsing Yun writes:
A common form of duplicity is flattery. Flattery is always engaged in for ulterior reasons. Flattery is a form of trickery used to get something to do something or give something they would not otherwise do or give. Whenever we smile falsely or use words to create false feelings among people, we are guilty of an offense against truth. Actions like these damage the natural trust that should prevail among groups of people. (Hsing Yun 1998) 2.
Again from Master Hsing Yun:
The importance of speech cannot be overemphasized. People create most of their bad karma through speech.
Speech is the single most powerful means by which we interact with other people. Our choice of words, our tone of voice, even our selection of subject matter can have the profoundest influence on other people. Intemperate or ill-considered speech often leads to misunderstanding, suspicion, and anger. (Hsing Yun 1998) 2.
From Venerable Narada Thera we read:
Truthfulness or Sacca is the seventh Perfection. By Sacca is here meant the fulfilment of one’s promise. This is one of the salient characteristics of a Bodhisattva, for he is no breaker of his word. He acts as he speaks, he speaks as he acts. (yathavaditath akariyathakari tathavadi).
He makes truth his guide, and holds it his bounden duty to keep his word. He ponders well before he makes his promise, but once made the promise is fulfilled at any cost, even that of his life. (Narada 1988) 3.
From Acariya Dhammapala's Commentary to the Cariyapitaka,
One devoted to truth secures the foundation of all noble qualities. With truthfulness as the foundation, he is capable of purifying and fulfilling all the requisites of enlightenment. Not deceived about the true nature of phenomena, he performs the functions of all the requisites of enlightenment and completes the practice of the Bodhisattva path. (Dhammapala 6th cent.) 4.
References
1. Amitabha Publications. 2005. Heart of a Buddha. Published by Amitabha Publications, Taiwan.
2. Master Hsing Yun. 1998. Being Good. Translated by Tom Graham. Published by Weatherhill, Inc., 568 Broadway, Suite 705, New York, NY 10012.
3. Ven. Narada Thera. 1988. The Buddha and His Teachings. Published by the Buddhist Missionary Society, 123, Jalan Berhala, 50470, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
4. Achariya Dhammapala. 6th cent. A Treatise on the Paramis. Translated by Bhikkhu Bodhi. Published online at www.accesstoinsight.org. Originally published in The Wheel Publication No. 409/411 (Kandy: Buddhist Publication Society, 1978). Transcribed from a file provided by the BPS, with minor revisions in accordance with the ATI style sheet.
Disclaimer
As we, the Chan Academy Australia, Chan Academy being a registered business name of the Buddhist Discussion Centre (Upwey) Ltd., do not control the actions of our service providers from time to time, make no warranty as to the continuous operation of our website(s). Also, we make no assertion as to the veracity of any of the information included in any of the links with our websites, or another source accessed through our website(s).
Accordingly, we accept no liability to any user or subsequent third party, either expressed or implied, whether or not caused by error or omission on either our part, or a member, employee or other person associated with the Chan Academy Australia (Buddhist Discussion Centre (Upwey) Ltd.)
This Radio Script is for Free Distribution. It contains Buddha Dhamma material and is provided for the purpose of research and study.
Permission is given to make print outs of this publication for FREE DISTRIBUTION ONLY. Please keep it in a clean place.
"The gift of Dhamma excels all other gifts".