(I’m seven hours into a twenty-eight hour flight — it’s quarter to two in the morning, body-time, so I’m more than a little loopy; let’s see how much sense this makes…)

Bodhidharma: Self-nature is subtle and mysterious. In the realm of the inexplicable Dharma, not preaching a single word is called the Precept of Not Lying.

Dogen Zenji: The Dharma Wheel turns from the beginning. There is neither surplus nor lack. The whole universe is moistened with nectar, and the truth is ready to harvest.

Robert Chotan Gyoun Roshi:  I take up the way of not speaking falsely. Speaking falsely is also killing, and specifically, killing the Dharma. The lie is set up to defend the idea of a fixed entity, a self image, a concept, or an institution. I want to be known as warm and compassionate, so I deny that I was cruel, even though somebody got hurt. Sometimes I must lie to protect someone or large numbers of people, animals, plants and things from getting hurt, or I believe I must. What is the big picture? “Buddha nature pervades the whole universe.”

In the same way that ” no stealing” is a version of “no killing,” the precept “no lying” is a version of the precepts that precede it. Lying is, as Aitken Roshi explains, killing the Dharma. It’s also stealing the truth from others – and from yourself – and taking what should be shared out of an immature selfishness.

We lie to protect the self… sometimes for personal gain, to take advantage of people, or to avoid looking stupid. Whatever the specific justification, bullshitting is another kind of violence.

When you lie to take something from someone else, something you don’t deserve – money, or property, or confidence – you do grave harm. When you lie to pretend you are someone you’re not, you lay mortar on the bricks of your own prison.