Exploring the Path - Pāli Course

The ability to communicate orally and in writing is one of the special and amazing features of humankind—words can bolster friendship, concord, boost amity and convey wisdom. But words can also create disharmony, break friendship, foster enmity, and yield conflicts. Performance of wrong speech is linked to micchāsaṅkappo where the drive to achieve desired benefits results in the volition to deceive, delude or harm, and is rooted in rāga, dosa and moha. Micchāvācā will harvest detrimental effects, while maintaining sammāvācā produces harmony and represents a prerequisite for higher achievements.

Sammāvācā is probably the most difficult link of the constituents of the ariyo aṭṭhaṅgiko maggo to consistently uphold without fault. Sammāvācā often stands on slippery grounds in an environment where one can so easily fall into the trap of wrong speech, not only due to ignorance but often due to hope for some imaginary reward to be gained from it.⁴

Sammāvācā is depicted here in the short selective definition of the Vibhaṅgasutta.⁵ Right speech is characterized by the abstention from the four constituents of wrong speech:

‘ … musāvādo, pisuṇā vācā, pharusā vācā, samphappalāpo – ayaṃ, bhikkhave, micchāvācā’ –

‘ … false speech, backbiting and slander, offending and harsh words and useless chatter, this, Bhikkhus, is wrong speech!’

Committing to right speech by actively avoiding unwholesome verbal actions strengthens positive social interactions and fosters overall wholesome conduct. However, being embedded within the Noble Eightfold Path, as the first link in the threefold section of sīla, right speech indicates its importance for spiritual achievements. Upholding all the three parts of moral and ethical standards enhances harmony and peace, not only for the outside world around but it also operates as a base for mental calm and natural harmony within, itself again a prerequisite for spiritual development.