Cattāri Brahmavihārā

I undertake the training rule to refrain from false and harmful speech.

I used to think the precept to refrain from false speech was pretty easy; a simple cut and dry affair. How difficult could it be to simply refrain from speaking falsehoods right? Turns out, for me at least, that the deeper I go into this practice the harder it seems for me to be faithful in my adherence to the precept.

But why is that? Shouldn’t I be getting better at this whole thing as I practice longer and more ardently? In one sense, yes, I certainly should so it may speak to a lack of rightly directed effort but, in another sense, I have become aware of and sensitive to ways of speaking that I never would have considered to be false speech before. It is as if my practice has shone a light on things that were covered up by the darkness of ignorance and now, like it or not, I need to deal with them. What are jokes that take liberties with the truth? What is sarcasm? Are these examples of false speech or are they to be condoned simply because we all do them?

There are dozens of other examples that fall into this category s the best I can do is try to see them as the arise and watch where they lead when they are followed and when they are not.

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