This week, as part of a series called "50 Great Voices," National Public Radio (NPR) featured a story about Hawaiian musician Israel Kamakawiwo’ole and his rendition of "Over the Rainbow." What struck me about this piece (and how it connects to yoga) was the description that a friend of the late musician gave of what Hawaiians call Mana. Mana, as he described it, is the energy within us that we get from the earth, the air, the water, and our Source. I immediately connected this in my mind with what we call Prana in yoga—our life force. What came next though is what I really liked. He said we have this energy within us, and when we open our mouths, that energy is what comes out—in what we sing and what we say. How beautiful—this image of Source flowing directly from our mouths.
Unfortunately, our words as a reflection of Source are often distorted. We learn to filter our words (not necessarily in a good way) through our experiences, beliefs, and emotions. It’s as if, on its way out, our Source energy passes through a screen, which taints its purity, coloring it through the lens through which we view and experience the world.
When we achieve a pure and true reflection of Source in our words, perhaps this is what many religious and spiritual traditions might call "right speech."
Coincidentally, "right speech" was also a focus of my yoga classes last week, and a practice I’ve been re-visiting with renewed emphasis in my own life since starting to read Don Miguel Ruiz’s The Four Agreements last month.
The first of Don Miguel Ruiz’s four agreements is "be impeccable with your word," which he describes as speaking with integrity, saying only what you mean, avoiding using the word against yourself or others, and using the power of your words toward truth and love. This agreement is the foundation for the other agreements, which include not taking anything personally, not making assumptions, and always doing your best.
The Bhagavad Gita—perhaps the most well-known Hindu text, which I am also reading—emphasizes controlling speech in addition to meditation and controlling body and mind as part of a simple, self-reliant life through which, “one who has attained perfection, also attains Brahman, the supreme consummation of wisdom.”
It is also easy to see how right speech relates to the guiding principles of yoga—the yamas (restraints) and the niyamas (observances)—especially Ahimsa (non-harming—not using words against yourself or others), Satya (truth), Brahmacharya (moderation—discerning when to speak and when it is perhaps better to refrain), and Saucha (purity—coming from a place of honesty and integrity with your words).
As I re-visit the practice of right speech in my own life, three questions I try to ask myself before opening my mouth are, “Is it true? Is it kind? Is it necessary?” I first saw these questions quoted in an article by Sally Kempton on Yoga Journal.com. She attributes them to one of her teachers who referred to them as the “three gates of speech.” I keep these questions on a ‘post-it’ on the dashboard of my laptop.
Certainly one reason the NPR story resonated with me so deeply is because I was hearing it as yet another manifestation of this theme of right speech, which seemed to be coming up everywhere around me last week—in the messages that accompanied my Yogi Tea, and in a workshop I participated in last weekend on the essence of unconditional love, in addition to my own classes and reading. Perhaps this phenomenon of “right speech” seeming to appear everywhere was occurring because that was what I was paying attention to and looking for. Perhaps it also has some deeper meaning. That possibility is difficult for me to ignore.
For those of you who are interested, the messages that revealed themselves to me via Yogi Tea were:
“If your word does not reflect your spirit and honor, do not speak.” (Is that not absolutely perfect?)
“Noble language and behaviors are so powerful that hearts can be melted.”
And, in case you’re wondering—yes, I do always read the messages that accompany my Yogi Tea, and yes, I do drink a lot of tea, so perhaps it is not so significant that these messages appeared, but it felt significant at the time.
In closing, I’ll share just one more piece of the story from NPR—the perspective of a music producer who noted the criticism Israel Kamakawiwo’ole’s cover of “Over the Rainbow” has received for its lyrics and melody, which sometimes stray from the original. He said, “you can talk about how he gets the lyrics wrong and changes the melody, or simply listen and smile.” Here’s a link to the song on YouTube. I hope you enjoy it.
