AudioDharma: Gil Fronsdal's most recent dharma talks
Oct 1, 2026 · 13 min · 6 segments
This talk was given by Gil Fronsdal on 2026.10.01 at the Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City, CA. A machine generated transcript of this talk is available. It has not been edited by a human, so…
Gil FronsdalHost
So we, we come to the fourth form of wise speech, beneficial speech, right speech perhaps, and, um, that, um, fitting under the acronym of AUDIT, so accurate, useful, the disposition with which we speak.
And, and in terms of impact, um, the, uh, the way that, um, uh, closer to what actually Buddha said is, is it endearing or an- agreeable? Do we speak in ways that are agreeable to people, it's pleasing to people? And the...
Um, "Is it gentle, pleasing to the ear, lovable, going to the heart, courteous, desired by many," many wanna hear us speak, "agreeable to many?" Um, so this idea that it's pleasing or agreeable or nice for people to hear, and, um, is a very, um...
is part of the audit, part of like, "How am I speaking now?" So a way that's not a- agreeable or pleasing is to be harsh, to be mean, to say things which are unkind, that are not gentle, that are c- callous, uh, that, uh, people...
And, um, and the idea is to why do that? Why? Are we trying to protect ourselves by being mean or angry? Are we trying to do a one-upmanship? Are we trying to prove that we're better than other people and more capable and by diminishing people? Uh, are we trying to convey our frustration with them, uh, that, uh, we have to somehow get across? The corollary for this idea of paying attention to the impact up and, and be concerned with a positive impact, agreeable impact, is the Buddha talks elsewhere about speaking words that are unifying.
But words that, uh, keep the door open or help create kind of a, a nice world for everybody.
So we, we come to the fourth form of wise speech, beneficial speech, right speech perhaps, and, um, that, um, fitting under the acronym of AUDIT, so accurate, useful, the disposition with which we speak.
And, and in terms of impact, um, the, uh, the way that, um, uh, closer to what actually Buddha said is, is it endearing or an- agreeable? Do we speak in ways that are agreeable to people, it's pleasing to people? And the...
Um, "Is it gentle, pleasing to the ear, lovable, going to the heart, courteous, desired by many," many wanna hear us speak, "agreeable to many?" Um, so this idea that it's pleasing or agreeable or nice for people to hear, and, um, is a very, um...
is part of the audit, part of like, "How am I speaking now?" So a way that's not a- agreeable or pleasing is to be harsh, to be mean, to say things which are unkind, that are not gentle, that are c- callous, uh, that, uh, people...
And, um, and the idea is to why do that? Why? Are we trying to protect ourselves by being mean or angry? Are we trying to do a one-upmanship? Are we trying to prove that we're better than other people and more capable and by diminishing people? Uh, are we trying to convey our frustration with them, uh, that, uh, we have to somehow get across? The corollary for this idea of paying attention to the impact up and, and be concerned with a positive impact, agreeable impact, is the Buddha talks elsewhere about speaking words that are unifying.
But words that, uh, keep the door open or help create kind of a, a nice world for everybody.
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