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Basic Buddhist Teachings 9 - Right Speech and Right Livelihood

Thich Nhat Hanh · December 19, 1993 · Plum Village, France
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Draw a circle divided into two parts: the lower part is the store consciousness (alaya, the “storehouse” containing all the seeds of the mind), and the upper part is the mental formations (the living room, manifesting as 50–51 mental formations, including feeling, perception, and 49 other formations such as initial thought (Vitarka – grasping ideas) and sustained thought (Vicara – the continuing activity of the mind). Initial and sustained thought are the “language of the mind,” like a cassette tape running non-stop in our head; when we “put on the headphones” (direct our consciousness inward), thinking is expressed as words. Each mental formation, after manifesting, returns to become a new seed in the store consciousness, which can grow or change depending on conditions.

*Mindfulness is the “lamp” that illuminates the living room of our mental formations, helping us to shine light on initial and sustained thought, to understand the wholesome or unwholesome nature of our thinking and speech. When thought arises from right view, it is right thinking; when speech arises from right thinking, it is right speech. Right speech must be connected with right view, right thinking, and the recognition of our habits and deep suffering. A typical practice of right speech is to write a letter or a practice note to a loved one every 10–15 days:

  1. Write with insight and mindfulness, without haste.
  2. Use poetry or prose to water the “seeds of happiness” and to transform suffering.
  3. Ask the sangha or a fellow practitioner to review and offer feedback so that the next letter may be more profound.
    Through this, right speech becomes a vehicle of Bodhicitta, helping ourselves and others to be more peaceful and at ease.*
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Previous Talk December 16, 1993
2h 10m

Basic Buddhist Teachings 8 - Right Speech

Next Talk December 23, 1993
1h 53m

Basic Buddhist Teachings 10 - Right Mindfulness