Page 64 - The Buddha‘s Noble Eightfold Path

impulse to give or to share, love, compassion, sympathetic joy —

in fact happiness in general, and finally faith and devotion.
Transfigured by Perfect Vision, our emotional life assumes this

sort of complexion, this sort of coloring.

Now we come to the third aspect of the Buddha's Noble

Eightfold Path, which is Right Speech — samyak vaca. In this case
the translation presents no problems. Here there is no

ambiguity, no nuance to be rendered with some difficulty into
English. 'Vaca' means simply speech or utterance in a quite literal
sense, while 'samyak' as in the case of the other stages of the

Path means not just right as opposed to wrong — the usual
translation — but that which is whole, complete, integral, fully

developed, perfect. We shall therefore speak of samyak vaca, in
English, not just as Right Speech but as Perfect Speech. This is
what it really is: what it really means.

It is very significant that Perfect Speech is regarded as an

independent stage or aspect of the Eightfold Path. One might
well have thought that speech was not so important, and that
being a sort of action it could be included under Right Action,

which comes next. But that is not the case.

In the Buddha's teaching, as represented by the Eightfold Path,
Perfect Speech gets a whole stage to itself. This indicates the
very great importance Buddhism gives to speech in general, and

especially to Perfect Speech. Not only is Perfect Speech the third
aspect of the Buddha's Noble Eightfold Path, but abstention

from its opposite — false or imperfect speech — constitutes the
fourth of the five precepts every lay Buddhist is expected to
observe.

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