Page 71 - The Buddha‘s Noble Eightfold Path

Truthfulness is also psychological, also spiritual. Besides factual

accuracy, speaking the truth also involves an attitude of honesty
and sincerity. It involves saying what we really think. You are not

speaking the truth unless you speak the whole truth, and say
what is really in your heart and mind — say what you really think,
even what you really feel. If you do not do that, you are not

being truthful, you are not really communicating.

But then another question arises. Do we really even know what
we think? Do we really know what we feel? Most of us live or
exist in a state of chronic mental confusion, bewilderment,

chaos, disorder. We may repeat, as the occasion arises, what we
have heard, what we have read. We may regurgitate it when we

are required to do so, whether at the time of examinations in the
case of students, or on social occasions in the case of other
people, but we do all this without really knowing what we say.

How can we, therefore, really speak the truth? Since we do not
really know what we think, how can we be truthful?

If we want to speak the truth in the full sense, or at least in a
fuller sense than is usually understood, we must clarify our ideas.

We must introduce some sort of order into this intellectual chaos
of ours. We must know quite clearly, quite definitely, what we

think, what we do not think, what we feel, what we do not feel;
and we must be intensely aware. We must know what is within
us, what are our motivations, what are our drives and our ideals,

and this means that we have to be completely honest with
ourselves; it means that we have to know ourselves. If we do not

71