White Tara said:
“The transgression of dishonest speech happens easily. It becomes a habit when one keeps making false claims about what is true, whether by denying the truth, inventing stories, or simply speaking nonsense. This breaks the samaya of speech, and it brings about negative karma and great troubles.”
I said:
“Monks, refrain from lying!”
Actually, it is not only monks who should avoid lying, but laypeople as well.
In reality, lying is extremely common in society.
In this world, it is very rare to find a truly honest person.
Many people make up falsehoods without any basis at all!
***
For example:
Someone wrote a series of stories to smear Grandmaster Lu.
People read them, and the stories spread everywhere.
One media company published them.
Another media company published them too.
Then many more media outlets followed.
It seemed as though Grandmaster Lu had become the most vicious, wicked, and unforgivable person imaginable.
But in fact, those stories were false.
This is an example of distorting the truth with false speech!
As spiritual practitioners, we do not want to get caught up in arguments or disputes.
Instead, I thought:
“If the accusations were true, then I should take them as a lesson and correct myself. If they were false, then I would not let them bother me.”
(This is just how the human world is.)
***
For example:
A dharma sister and her child were passing through customs.
The customs officer asked:
“Why are you carrying so much money?”
The dharma sister replied:
“I sold my house!”
Her child said:
“Mom! We did not sell our house!”
The customs officer:
“……”
The dharma sister:
“……”
Thus, lies can be classified into:
- Neither beneficial nor harmful.
- Beneficial and harmless.
- Non-beneficial and harmful.
- Beneficial as well as harmful.
Also, as I have said before, some practitioners claim to possess great supernatural powers when in fact they have none.
(That is also false speech.)
White Tara said:
“Do not make baseless assertions! False speech carries karmic consequences. One will fall into the evil paths, and in future lives, people will not believe what one says. In life after life, one will lie again and again, and over time this becomes habitual.”
I think the story of The Wolf Is Coming! is a lesson for habitual liars.
“The wolf is coming!” All the villagers scattered and ran away.
The lying child laughed loudly.
“The wolf is coming! The wolf really is coming!” All the villagers scattered and ran away again.
The lying child laughed again.
One day, the wolf really did come.
This time, when they heard “The wolf is coming!”, nobody ran.
As a result, the lying child and the villagers all died.
Isn’t this lesson enough?