Buddhism, Intro to Noble Eightfold Path #3: 'Right Communication' with Ajahn Dhammasiha

The 3rd installment of our 8-part-series on the Noble Eightfold Path ('Ariyo Aṭṭhangiko Maggo'). The Noble 8-Fold Path is one of the most fundamental concepts in the Buddha's teaching, and a very suitable and practicle guide for us to develop meditation in daily life.Ajahn Dhammasiha points out that 'Sammā Vācā' translates literally to 'Right Speech'. However, as nowadays often only a small fraction of our communication is by speech, 'right communication' is a more suitable rendering. It includes all the various channels of electronic social interaction like email, text messages, skype, zoom, facetime, tweets, ...It's so important to include internet communication, as one can make very strong karma, both good and bad, by posting anything that goes viral and can be seen by thousands or even millions of other human beings.There are 4 factors for right communication:To avoid lying and to communicate truthfullyTo avoid divisive communication, and to communicate so that those in conflict will be re-united, and those already in harmony will become even closer friendsTo avoid harsh, offensive/insulting communication, and to communicate friendly, polite, endearing, and reaching the heartTo avoid useless, pointless communication, and to communicate at the right time, factual, meaningful, connected with Dhamma & discipine, reasonable, worth treasureing and concerned with the other's welfare (how much of social media communication would fulfill these criteria? 😉 ;-)www.dhammagiri.org.auwww.vimeo.com/dhammatalkswww.tinyletter.com/dhammagiri/archive.