Going Beyond Negative Speech

Question: nnI'm curious about the spiritual concept of "evil tongue"(speaking evil of others) and its pervasiveness in our culture. Why do people become energized when they say or read something negative about someone else? What does it say about where that person is? What are the consequences of perpetuating negativity or feeling schadenfreude?nn nnGenpo Roshi:nnUnfortunately, saying or hearing negative things about others not only damages them, it can have the effect of solidifying and building up our own ego. The gratification of putting someone down, or even hearing or reading such words spoken by others, gives us the sense of being better than others and pleasure at somebody else’s expense.nnIn Zen Buddhism we have the Ten Grave Precepts. These Ten Precepts fall into three categories: body, speech and thought. Of these ten, four are concerned with Right Speech, because negative speech seems to be one of the major traps that we as human beings fall into, and it is so detrimental and affects karma.nnParticipating in slander and gossip is a symptom of how inadequate we feel. If we truly felt whole, complete and okay – which is the awakened state of mind we wouldn’t need to fall into the trap of negative speech. When we see that our own true nature is not lacking in any way, we ultimately want to rejoice and celebrate other peoples’ success and well-being. When we do not see our own true nature, we mistakenly believe our ego-centeredness, which I call the small and limited self, is who we really are. We do not realize the True Self, which transcends the limited ego self and the limitless Big Mind.nnWhen we go beyond the limited and the limitless and realize our True Self, we can embrace our own ego. Recognizing that we can’t be completely free from ego, we are no longer in denial of the ego. At this point, we are coming from an awakened state of mind that includes and yet transcends the ego.nnWe normally fall into the trap of either trying to get rid of the ego – which is virtually impossible because we need an ego to function – or denying the ego and believing we are selfless or egoless. And still it is ego. The key is to recognize and be aware because it is only by recognizing and through awareness that we can truly transcend the ego, which means embracing and yet moving beyond ego-centeredness.nnFrom the perspective of our True Self, we hold no preference for our own self-centeredness or selflessness. This is what it means to include and go beyond the self. As soon as we hold a preference for one over the other, it is the ego that is at work. As long as the ego is in charge, then we delight in speaking ill of others, putting others down or rejoicing in their misfortunes because we don’t see that we are all one and connected, that intrinsically I am you and you are me, that your good fortune is my good fortune and your misfortune is my misfortune.nn nn nnExcerpt taken from Gwyneth Paltrows Newsletter GoopnnZen Master Genpo Roshi founded the Kanzeon Sangha, an international Zen community in 1984, with groups and centers throughout Europe and the U.S., and is abbot of Big Mind Western Zen Center in Salt Lake City, Utah, which he founded in 1993. He discovered the Big Mind process in 1999. His newest book is Big Mind Big Heart: Finding Your Way.nnHis website is: www.bigmind.org