Five Factors of Well Spoken Speech

Monks, possessing five factors, speech is well spoken, not badly spoken, it is blameless and beyond reproach (disapproval) by the wise.

What five?

(1) It is spoken at the proper time;

(2) What is said is true;

(3) It is spoken gently;

(4) What is said is beneficial;

(5) It is spoken with a mind of loving-kindness.

Possessing these five factors, speech is well spoken, not badly spoken; it is blameless and beyond reproach (disapproval) by the wise.

(Reference: AN 5.198)

In this Teaching from Gotama Buddha, he shares The Five Factors of Well Spoken Speech as a detailed Teaching to further explain Right Speech as part of The Eight Fold Path.

A Practitioner will need to train the mind to deeply understand and practice The Five Factors of Well Spoken Speech to attain Enlightenment.

Right Speech: The Right Speech involves ensuring that we do not cause harm to other beings through our communication. During the lifetime of Gotama Buddha all that existed was “verbal speech”. Today, we communicate through verbal speech, text/chat messages, emails, posts to social media, and many other forms of written communication. All communication can either be “harmless and wholesome” or “harmful and unwholesome”. But choosing to learn and practice harmless communication, or Right Speech, you are then ensuring how you interact with others does not cause harm so that harm is not returned to you.

To practice Right Speech, or Right Communication, a Practitioner would need to fully develop and practice The Five Factors of Well Spoken Speech in all conversations through gradual training of the mind. This includes polite, kind, friendly, respectful, and wholesome speech in all forms of communication.

Proper Time: A Practitioner needs to ensure they are choosing the right time to speak. This includes not interrupting others when they are speaking, choosing to be patient and to speak at the appropriate time. This also includes ensuring that your mind is prepared to speak and is choosing to speak at a time when the mind is clear and concentrated rather than angered or otherwise confused about the topic to be discussed. If the mind is angered or unconcentrated, this will produce communication that is harmful to others requiring them to sort through our own discontent feelings and unconcentrated or unorganized thoughts.

If the mind is discontent, that is the improper time to speak. Postponing conversations can allow the mind time to regain its calmness, mindfulness, and concentration to then ensure one is speaking at the proper time with wisdom. If the mind is lacking Right Intention, Right Mindfulness or Right Concentration, that is the improper time to communicate. Allow the mind to regain these qualities of mind and then communicate at the proper time when you can practice harmlessness with full awareness of the mind and with focus or singleness of mind.

It is also important that you observe and consider whether it is the proper time to talk with the other person. If they are angered, frustrated, or irritated, it is most likely not the proper time to have a discussion. You can consider the topic that you have to speak about and ensure it is the appropriate time to have a discussion on that specific topic. When people first come home or have recently arrived to a certain destination, it is oftentimes best to allow their mind to adjust to the new environment where they have just arrived before discussing most topics especially topics that may be of a heavy nature. Topics that are significant, dramatic, or those that might involve major changes to one’s life would be best discussed at a time when your mind, and the mind of others involved, is prepared to discuss that topic. It could be wise to ask the other individual if it would be a good time to discuss a certain topic before just opening up into an in-depth conversation that could have significant impacts to one’s life. As a wise Practitioner, you may need to prepare the mind of the individual prior to choosing to have major conversations through asking questions if it would be a good time to speak about a specific topic rather than opening up into a full scale conversation.

Knowing the best time to speak with others will need to be developed through trial and error, being best assessed in the present moment, based on the uniqueness of the topic, while considering the mental state of the individuals involved in the conversation.

True: Having truthful communication helps to establish that you are a truth-speaker, one to be relied on, trustworthy, dependable, not a deceiver of the world. A Practitioner who only speaks the truth develops the ability to be helpful and well received by others because people become accustomed to you only speaking the truth. It will be well known within your community that when you speak, you only speak the truth, therefore, you will find it much easier to help others and encourage improvement in all the various projects and efforts you choose to participate.

Through speaking the truth, you become “one whom people listen to” well received in the world instead of a deceiver of the world.

You will find that opportunities to progress in life with wholesome outcomes will come to you more easily because in your personal and professional relationships people know that you are not a lair but are trustworthy and dependable. If one speaks untruths, people worry what else you could be lying about and one’s reputation is significantly diminished creating obstacles to your success in life.

Not only is it wise to speak the truth, in terms of, not telling a deliberate lie but also, it is important to verify the accuracy so that all you share through communication is 100% true. Whether you are speaking, writing, or otherwise communicating in any way, ensuring that you have independently verified what you share with others will ensure the best possible outcomes and the mind can be at ease knowing that what you share is accurate and the truth. Propagating untruths, conspiracy theories, or otherwise unfounded content will only create harm in the world, therefore, it will produce unwholesome results for you. Where you can talk through your own direct experience, this will ensure you are speaking the truth, not only by not telling a deliberate lie, but also ensuring all that is communicated is accurate and based in wisdom.

Always speaking the truth makes it easy for the mind and unburdens the mind. If one always speaks the truth, they do not need to sort through all the various conversations and statements they have made in the past to conduct conversations in the present moment. A Practitioner can just always look to the truth, speak the truth, and the mind can rest easy knowing that at all times you are only ever speaking the truth. This allows communication to happen easily, seamlessly, and with minimal effort unburdening the mind. The mind can rest and relax knowing that you are only ever speaking the truth.

Spoken Gently: To speak gently, one needs to pay close attention to training and then practicing gentle tone, tempo, and word choice in their communication. Through observing what is working and not working amongst individuals that you communicate with, you can dramatically improve how you communicate and, thus, interact with others. You can observe and become aware how calm and gentle words work to accomplish your goals more readily than rushed and harsh words. You will need to practice, observe, and adjust your communication style until the mind is more finely tuned to practice speaking effortlessly and gently in all conversations paying close attention to tone, tempo, and word choice.

When you do not practice speaking gently, notice how it causes harm to others and thus, causes harm in your relationships. There are going to be challenges for you to bring your communication style closer to speaking gently in all conversations. As you are gradually developing your life practice but still unable to practice speaking gently, you can apologize, aim to improve, then move on applying effort to improve in each and every conversation.

Beneficial: A Practitioner who is speaking beneficially would ensure their communication is clear, concise, and well delivered ensuring there is purposeful speech with an interest to help others. If one was to speak unclearly, lacking conciseness, and with poorly delivered communication then it would cause harm to others as they would need to sort through the muddled conversation to determine what you are attempting to communicate.

Through a well concentrated mind that is uninterested in causing harm to others, you can decide to train the mind to gather the thoughts and communicate in a clear, concise, and well delivered method that ensures the receiver of your communication does not need to apply extensive effort to understand what is being shared. Communication should be purposeful and to the point without frivolous speech or pointless rambling.

If you make people work hard to understand what you are attempting to share, people will be less and less interested in communicating with you. People will just stop listening and “tune you out”. You will find this frustrating and challenging to accomplish your goals in life.

To develop effectiveness in communication, your speech needs to be beneficial to others through purposeful dialogue that is not self satisfying or originating from selfish desires.

Instead, look for ways to help others that focus on bringing people together in harmony rather than argumentative unbeneficial conversations through clear, concise, and well delivered communication.

A Mind of Loving-kindness: Through a well developed practice of Right Intention, a Practitioner should have loving-kindness for all beings. Loving-kindness is active goodwill towards all beings without judgment. A genuine interest in seeing all beings be well.

Through Right Intention, or Right Thought and Right Thinking brought through into Right Speech, the mind is well prepared to deliver words with goodwill and an interest in seeing all beings be well. If there is any ill will inserted into your communication, this will cause harm to others, therefore, cause harm to you.

While on the surface sarcasm may seem humorous and harmless, but in reality the true intention behind sarcasm is oftentimes malicious and with ill intent. While it may be the right time, true, gentle, and perceived as beneficial, if there is ill intent with sarcasm through mocking or ridicule then the speech is not being spoken through a mind of loving-kindness.

Therefore, any speech including sarcasm that has ill will is harmful and will only come back to harm you. People will speak to you in the same way that you speak to others. The ill intended speech with sarcasm, mocking, and ridicule of others is only going to be returned to you as this is the speech one is choosing to use with others. Conversely, if you speak with a mind of loving-kindness, that is how others will choose to speak with you. Overtime, more and more people will observe your wholesome moral conduct and choose to treat you the same way that you treat others.

Blameless: No one enjoys being blamed for anything or made to feel as if they are at fault. While it could be true that someone has made a mistake, it is just a mistake or accident and if you choose to assign blame in your communication, it is only going to serve to create division. And, if the person truly has not made a mistake and is being falsely blamed, this is only going to create separation and arguments - blameful speech is harmful speech.

If we choose to be blameful towards others holding them to potentially feel guilty about their mistakes, then people are going to be uninterested to interact with you as a family member, friend, or coworker. Rather than focusing on placing blame, a well trained mind can let go of that desire and instead focus on solutions to the mistake. There is no need to ensure someone is pressured into accepting blame, but instead, the real challenge is how to move past this impermanent situation in peacefulness and harmony with all beings feeling whole.

Placing blame would only produce harm to others through disparaging others’ efforts, thus, it is going to harm your relationship both personally and professionally. Mistakes or accidents are “mistakes and accidents” so punishing others through blameful speech is only going to drive people in the opposite direction from you where you will lack the support you need to accomplish the goals or objectives ahead of you. Instead of blaming others for situations and circumstances that are in the past, focus on the present moment and how to resolve the situation for the best outcome of all involved. It is best to find encouraging, supportive, and motivating language that can allow all participants to maintain their enthusiasm and interest to work together in meeting a given goal or objective. Speech that is blameless is speech that is harmless.

Through causing no harm in your communication, you will find that relationships are quite enjoyable and you can be inspiring to countless people in your life.

You can reflect on these Five Factors of Well Spoken Speech and the need to speak blamelessly and how when you have not spoken in this way, your conversations and relationships dissolved or were otherwise negatively impacted. Conversely, you can observe how when speaking in this way, all participants gained insight, understanding, and maintained harmony in accomplishing certain goals.

As you observe that the mind is not practicing one or more of these five (5) factors, make efforts and repeated efforts to improve your moral conduct through applying energy and active training of the mind. Bring your speech closer and closer to these five (5) factors observing how your personal and professional relationships will dramatically improve as you focus on improving your life practice as it relates to Right Speech or Right Communication.

If you choose to not practice these five (5) factors in their entirety, then you will observe the struggles and challenges associated with practicing “wrong speech” or “wrong communication”. Difficulties in personal and professional relationships will ensue with the result of continued struggles and challenges making any goals or objectives more labor intensive. The mind will be drained of its energy because it is constantly struggling to have polite, kind, friendly, and respectful relationships.

If you miss even one (1) of these factors in a given conversation, there is the potential for the discussion to digress into argumentative or otherwise difficult territory that you’d wished would not have occurred. Training the mind closer and closer to practicing all five (5) factors will only help you to achieve better results in life. Speaking in this way is “a better way of life” that is beneficial for others, therefore, it is benefiting you. As your life practice becomes more and more wholesome, more and more wholesomeness will return to you.

We should not engage in idle chatter or unpurposeful talk that includes gossip, harsh language, false speech with lies, deceit, or slander.

Slander (Gossip): speech or communication that is damaging to the reputation of an individual/company/organization/country/group of people, etc., whether true or false.

Frivolous Speech (Idle Chatter): is described as speaking “unbeneficially” and “unpurposefully”. This is typically done with the mind’s craving/desire/attachment where one may just be rambling pointlessly without any real purpose or need to speak but instead, just because there is a craving/desire to talk. There is no purpose or value to the speech. In some cases, one could be speaking quickly and continuously without the ability for a mutual conversation.

Having clear, well thought out, purposeful and wholesome speech is important. Your speech should be without blame or “blameless”.

The Right Speech is born out of the Right Intention. With wholesome intentions practicing harmlessness, this will breed wholesome and purposeful speech free from craving, anger, and ignorance (unknowing of true reality) without ego.

A good practice is, “if you do not have something good to say then do not say anything at all”. You will need to learn to have “Right Speech” to attain Enlightenment practicing the “Five Factors of Well Spoken Speech”.

These are not rules to follow but instead, the best way to ensure the best possible outcome in all your communication with all beings. Through not causing harm to others through your speech, your life will become effortless and much more enjoyable as your personal and professional relationships will blossom.

When you do not practice speaking with Right Speech, notice how it causes harm to others and thus, causes harm in your relationships. There are going to be challenges for you to bring your communication style closer to speaking with Right Speech in all conversations. As you are gradually developing your life practice but still unable to practice speaking with Right Speech, you can apologize, aim to improve, then move on applying effort to improve in each and every conversation.

Detailed explanation of The Eight Fold Path is available in this same book series found in Chapter 5 of the book “Developing a Life Practice: The Path That Leads to Enlightenment” (Volume 1).