Refraining From False Speech

Michael McCord leads the YUZ Sangha through a talk about one of the ten grave precepts: “I vow to refrain from false speech.”

This precept asks us to look closely at the space between what is true and what we say — not only outright falsehoods, but exaggeration, spin, flattery, and the small ways we shade our words to manage how others see us or how we feel about ourselves. Practicing with it means learning to notice the impulse to speak before we've checked whether what we're about to say is accurate, kind, and necessary. It's less a rule about lying and more an invitation to bring honesty — with others and with ourselves — into every corner of how we communicate.  And primarily, what was the motivation to misrepresent reality?