3. Right Speech
Right Speech is the step on the Path that always spoke the loudest to me, no pun intended. It seems to be the easiest one for me to forget. Having refined a cynical, biting view of the world starting at age 12 I’ve used words as blunt instruments more often than I care to mention.
As an actor, my words are often not my own, of course, but I can choose to accept or decline a part depending on how I feel about the character and what he says and does. More often than not, I accept even if I have minor reservations about what I’ll be voicing. (I, too, have bills to pay.)
What would not be agreeable to me, however, would be to voice words, even in character, whose sole purpose were for the telling of falsehoods or meant to harm others. Right Speech, in my line of work, should not stop at the sound stage door simply for the sake of money.
But you can do Shakespeare and say some pretty nasty stuff about the world, and I’m guessing that wouldn’t show up on anybody’s radar as a bad thing to be doing. The best of our work edifies, and often we have to depict the unseemly side of humanity in order to do so. It’s up to the individual to make the determination as to whether the speech in question is meant to harm or instruct, though some jobs are obviously without merit when it comes to Right Speech.
The other legitimate area of exploration in regards to Right Speech is in the commentary that goes on off set. I have engaged in more than a few diatribes about how awful the industry is, how stupid people are, and how useless most of the people in the business can be. And this needs to change.
As with Right Intention, I can’t help but think that while I’ve committed to the principle in daily life (though I still stumble, occasionally at inopportune moments) I’ve not made this commitment when it comes to work related matters. As if somehow it’s okay to speak harshly about a production, but not of the guy blocking the subway door. Why the division?
Happily for me, I’ve shifted my focus towards the work I want to do, and work more regularly with people I respect and want to work with, so a good deal of “wrong speech” has ebbed away simply for lack of fodder. But I know there is still a lot of road ahead.
This is turning out to be a good exercise. I highly recommend. Tomorrow we’ll look at Right Action.