Today’s teaching was about the 5th of 10 non-virtuous actions, that of Harsh Speech.
A. PRELIMINARIES – THE PRECIOUS HUMAN BIRTH
Geshe la began by reminding everyone that the human existence that we have in this life, is not something to be taken for granted. It actually comes about through the accumulation of significant merits from past lives, as is consistent with the laws of Karma (cause and effect) which the class should, by now, be familiar with. Our human existence gives us a certain level of wisdom and ability for discernment which animals do not have. This wisdom allows us to live together with and even tame other beings such as animals who may have far greater physical strength (but not wisdom) than us human beings. In our Buddhist tradition, the human form also places us in a unique position to accumulate the merit that is much needed to propel and navigate our paths out of the cycle of rebirth by, amongst other things, allowing us to perform acts of kindness to benefit humanity and the world at large, which activities are part and parcel of our trainings towards achieving enlightenment.
If we are reborn as devas (in the god realms), or animals, we will not have the ability to accumulate merit in the above ways. It is only the human form that allows us to practise as such. That is why the 4th Buddha of this age, Lord Shakyamuni, assumed a human form and attained enlightenment in this form. Likewise, the future buddha of this fortunate aeon, Lord Maitreya, shall also take birth in a human form in the next era of the Dharma. This is why the sutras and works of the great Masters emphasise the rarity of this human birth, and beseech all who have the fortune to hear the Dharma to seize the opportunity to understand (and to practise) the Dharma.
It is however a pity that not many know how to make use of this precious opportunity. Instead, people time and again commit non virtuous actions, creating the causes to lose the precious human birth, leading to rebirth in unfortunate realms after this life has passed. Shantideva (寂天菩萨), in The Path of the Boddhisattva （入菩萨行论）observes at Chapter 6, that human beings waste this precious opportunity which he likens to an excellent piece of agricultural land, misused or left to become decrepit due to our ignorance. The reason behind this, is the lack of wisdom (ignorance) despite the advancement of technology in this age – people have exceedingly high levels of intellect, but simply lack the wisdom to apply it meaningfully. This is so due to the afflictions and the three poisons of ignorance (lack of wisdom), attachment (desire/greed) and aversion (hatred/anger) (贪嗔痴), that plague us prevent us from seeing the path out of this maze, or the path out of samsara. Our propensity to react negatively to events and people in our lives arise out of karma accumulated from past lives, and the poisons that plague each and every one of us. The moment the truth behind all phenomenon is understood, and one understands the essence of the Dharma, the time then comes for us to train ourselves to refine ourselves to create causes to distance ourselves from suffering and its causes.
For so many of us, we find our moods fleeting like clouds. Unpleasant events, or people associated with unpleasant events, can easily lead our happy moods sinking into a states of anger, despair or sadness. These come about from the 3 poisons, which are the main driving factors that cause us to accumulate negative karmic seeds, through motivating us to carrying out non virtuous actions. It is therefore important to be able to identify the 3 poisons, and mindfully watch one’s intentions (mind) during every waking hour, so as to avoid having the poisons control our acts or omissions that will surface through our (i) minds, (ii) speech and (iii) bodily actions.
B. THE 5TH NON VIRTUOUS ACTION – HARSH SPEECH
The Constituent Elements
This non virtuous action is often motivated aversion (anger/hatred).
Like all other non virtuous actions, they require the 4 constituent elements to be present before this karma can be said to be complete.
First, there has to be an entity against whom we wish to direct such Harsh Speech. That entity must be a sentient being, having life.
Secondly, there has to be motivated by one’s own anger, anguish or frustrations.
Thirdly, the party to whom the harsh speech is conveyed, must be the party that one has an intention to scold/ speak harshly to. A case of “mistaken identity” will render such karma incomplete. Likewise, the person must have heard the speech and understood it, for the karma to be complete.
Lastly, an intentional act is necessary – an accidental harsh speech renders the karma incomplete. However, it is not intentional for us to have uttered such Harsh Speech itself. Such karma can similarly be regarded as complete if instructed to be performed (by others) on our behalf.
Geshe la explained that even if the content of what is spoken may be true, if the intention is negative and harms others, that can still constitute Harsh Speech.
One therefore has to be careful therefore in terms of how one speaks. For example, if one were a teacher who needs to discipline students, carrying out some disciplinary speech is unavoidable, so it is important for one to give careful thought to how to express oneself so as to avoid committing the non virtuous action of Harsh Speech.
If one is at the receiving end of Harsh Speech, it is equally important to employ skillful means to respond to such Harsh Speech, which can sometimes come from one’s superiors or employers, so as not to unwittingly also carry out the non virtuous action of Harsh Speech, albeit in retaliation to Harsh Speech conveyed to one.
Effects of Harsh Speech
On the effect of Harsh Speech, Geshe la relayed a story which was narrated during the time of Lord Shakyamuni Buddha, but which event occurred during the time of the past Buddha, Lord Dipankara. The story revolves around a temple that housed an expensive offering donated by a generous benefactor, who was a wealthy merchant in the day. The temple was administered by a monk who valued the precious offering very much. One day, the area experienced drought, and the villagers wished to sell the expensive offering in order to raise funds help the villagers who were suffering from poverty. The monk was very upset by this suggestion, arguing that the offering was for him, but the villagers insisted that the precious item was actually a donation to the temple, not to him individually. The monk was very angry and said negative things about the people, and became reborn in lower realms. Even up until the time of Lord Shakyamuni Buddha, he was still languishing as a Rakasa (罗刹). It can therefore be seen that Harsh Speech emanating from people in important positions respected by the public, including those holding religious office, will have their negative karmic impact magnified manifold.
If the target of one’s Harsh Speech is one’s parents, that is also is a very negative karmic act. That is because one’s parents are the people whom one should be most grateful to. Even if criticism is out of care and concern for one’s parents, it should always as far as possible, be done in gentle terms, applying skillful means.
Coming to the actual effects of Harsh Speech, one creates the causes to be born in either the Hells, Hungry Ghosts or Animals, depending on the severity of the intention associated with the act. The heaviest ones are disrespect to one’s religious teachers, one’s benefactors, and especially to those masters from whom one has received tantric teachings or empowerments. This level of severity is attached also to when one criticizes other religious faiths.
It also has the effect of leading one to become exposed to Harsh Speech by others in the next life, as well as being easily hurt by whatever others say, even if one were to be reborn as a human in the next life.
In addition, one will be reborn with a tendency to repeat such habits, including the propensity to use harsh words to hurt others.
Finally, even if one is reborn as a human being, they will be born in challenging environments, filled with danger. Even if one were to be born in a rich family, one will have a propensity to becoming maligned and slandered by others for no apparent rhyme or reason.
On this issue, Geshe la shared another story documented from the time of Lord Shakyamuni Buddha. It related to a monk who was, one day, minding his own business and washing his yellow and red robes by the river. As he washed it, it started to look (from afar) like calf leather, and someone from the nearby village accused the monk of stealing their calf leather! They beat him up and arrested him – he was charged and imprisoned for 5 months. The other monks felt that this was entirely unfair to the monk, and asked the Buddha what he had done to deserve this. The Buddha explained that this was due to a cause created in his previous life, whereby he had committed serious Harsh Speech against others. Therefore, in this life, he had to face the ripening of his karma, which he had to repay before eventually attaining the state of an Arhat, which he did in that very lifetime.
This illustrates why the non virtuous actions emanating from those of speech, are actually the easiest to commit but yet, have the potential to ripen into serious consequences. It is therefore important to exercise restraint when it comes to reacting to Harsh Speech. This act of forbearance brings significant merits. People who have created these causes will enjoy being reborn in a good environment, being heaped with pleasant words, and one will avoid retribution of the nature described above.
C. CONCLUDING REMARKS
Geshe la concluded that it is therefore important to understand what are the non virtuous actions, so that one can (i) purify previous negative karma and (ii) also be mindful of one’s acts or omissions in future. Geshe la explained that the Buddha was very skillful in explaining how one should practise in the form of the 10 non virtuous actions, so as to give us a guide in terms of how we conduct ourselves in our daily lives.
Therefore, having been gifted with a previous human birth, we must consider how we can best make use of this opportunity. People tend to think that this life is long, but tomorrow is not a given. Many of us waste our lives doing meaningless things, causing harm to so many other sentient beings in the process. Such has been our conduct not just up to this point in time in this life, but over our many life times past. We should therefore reflect and to aim to cease non virtuous conduct, and do more for humanity.
Invariably, non virtuous actions are motivated by the 3 poisons. Due to these poisons, we waste our lives away. All this can be prevented if one reflects regularly on the negative consequences of such acts or omissions, and to move gradually away from these negative habits. Each morning, after we awake, we become slaves to the 3 poisons which lead us to performing these non virtuous things. We see how these poisons can go as far as to make human beings risk their own lives to for example, fight to the death with their “enemies”. We remain slaves of the 3 poisons (instead of becoming their masters) life after life, in the wheel of samsara. That is the real reason behind why we, as unenlightened beings, suffer repeatedly in cruelly turning wheel of samsara.
On the issue of the 3 poisons and how they affect us, Geshe la shared another story of classmate who left Southern India for the USA before graduation. The learned venerable wanted to escape the poverty and harsh conditions associated with the very difficult conditions in the monastery during those days. Whilst the learned venerable went to the USA to find work, he had maintained his monastic vows but found that secular life was very meaningless – each day he would work till he was exhausted and would get home everyday, utterly floored by the day’s events, only to press the repeat button the next day. The learned venerable started to ponder over the meaning behind living this way, and came to the realization that whilst he was doing all this to earn money, he actually had no family to feed, no kin who were relying upon him for monetary support. He eventually saw no meaning in this, and returned to the monastery in India to continue his studies, and eventually earned his Geshe degree and is now also a learned teacher of the Dharma.
Geshe la concluded that on the issue of how much wealth is enough, this is determined by our state of mind. Contentment is key. There is no absolute yardstick on how much is enough. Therefore, if our desire for wealth is adjusted, the pace of and stress in our lives can similarly be regulated.
Finally, Geshe la reminded the class that after one performs virtuous activities, whether it be life liberation, having studied the Dharma, having circumambulated a stupa etc, it is very important to quickly lock these merits up by dedication of these merits (回向功德) to all sentient beings, to protect it from being destroyed by a moment’s aversion/ anger. Similarly, any negative karmic actions that we may have performed either knowingly or unwittingly, should be confessed (忏悔) as soon as possible, so as to allow such negative karma to be purified as quickly as possible.
We thank everyone for attending the teaching, and may all benefit from these teachings and indeed the merits so engendered. May all keep safe, healthy and have all auspicious conditions!
The Maha Tare Team