Speechifying
Saturday I attended my second Wise Speech workshop at CIMC with Narayan Liebenson Grady. It was interesting because it was one of the few times when people are encouraged to talk to one another, and I found it refreshing, meeting new people or renewing existing friendships.
One nugget I’d like to share is the following quote, which comes from Maha Ghosananda. While his name might not be familiar to most, he’s earned the nickname “the Gandhi of Cambodia” for his work during the brutal Khmer Rouge years that eradicated Buddhism in Cambodia. Here’s the quote:
The thought manifests as the word.
The word manifests as the deed.
The deed develops into the habit.
The habit hardens into the character.
The character gives birth to the destiny.
So, watch your thoughts with care
And let them spring from love
Born out of respect for all beings.
Narayan shared this as a way to put Wise Speech into context as one of the bases upon which our actions depend. This makes clear the reasons behind the Buddhist emphasis on training oneself to engage in wise thought, speech, and action: they are are what drive our habits, our character, and our destiny.
This runs parallel to my main revelation during the workshop, which is to view speech as “instant karma”. Speech has instant, irrevocable results: speak in an unwise way, and you reap immediate repercussions.
Speech is an ideal part of one’s life to work with, because it is concrete, it’s easy to control, and you can see its results immediately. And, of course, it’s an area where most people act without any thought. There’s no other element of practice that yields such obvious results for such a small investment of effort.
After the workshop, a bunch of people from our ever-growing circle of dharma friends got together for a birthday dinner at the Elephant Walk. It’s a Cambodian restaurant, which was a bit ironic given the Ghosananda quote earlier in the day. After dinner we went for ice cream at Lizzie’s in Harvard Square, where I had my favorite: a frappe with chocolate chip ice cream and vanilla syrup, a personal creation I’ve always called “Corrugated Fun”.
This provided ample amusement, thanks to an event earlier in the day. Since lunch wasn’t provided for the workshop, a couple of us went over to the local Whole Foods to pick something up. I grabbed some fresh berries, but put those down when I discovered that they had Haagen-Dazs Cookies & Cream ice cream. Everyone was amused that I put away a pint of ice cream over lunch. Having more ice cream after supper (which I’d ordered “spicy”) only cemented my reputation as having an iron stomach.
I might have even scared them when I offered to recruit a few of them to come with me when the Jimmy Fund’s annual Scooper Bowl comes takes place in June!
Then I came home to some really surreal news, but that’s a story for another-friends-locked-post.