It’s 9pm. You’re laying on the couch with a big ol’ bag of your favorite snack, scrolling through all your streaming services, but nothing looks worth watching. The new True Crime mini-series looks too intense to relax to, deep down you know that pretentious documentary you want to tell your friends you watched will be a snooze fest, and you don’t feel like getting invested in any series more than two seasons long. That’s when you see it. It hits you like a moment of enlightenment. Jim Carrey’s “Liar Liar” flashes onto the screen. You sit back, ready to laugh, and unexpectedly learn a thing or two about the Buddhist concept of Right Speech.
Life Lessons From Roshi Fletcher Reede
First off, If you haven’t ever watched “Liar Liar” drop everything you’re doing and go watch it NOW. It’s a quintessential 90’s classic. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll root against the protagonist, then you’ll root for him, then against him, then for him again. All in 90 minutes. If you hate having a good time, or maybe just don’t have time to kick back on the couch, we’ll give you a break down of the general plot here.
MAJOR SPOILER ALERT BELOW!!!
Jim Carrey plays Fletcher Reede, a divorced lawyer living in Los Angeles. He’s a typical 90s movie dad. He loves his kid more than anything in the world, but can’t seem to find time to spend with him. His career is always getting in the way, and when it does, he lies about it. Whenever Fletcher is backed into a corner the floodgates open and the lies pour out out his mouth like an overfilled damn bursting at the seams.
Fletcher misses his custody day with his son, he lets him down by not taking him to the wrestling event he promised to, and blows off a game of catch to finish up and some work. But the lying doesn’t stop there. His twisted tongue doesn’t just affect his personal life, his entire career is dependent on his ability to lie.
Fletcher is hungry to be named partner at his law firm. And he’s willing to lie, cheat and steal to get there. Well, he doesn’t cheat or steal, but he does a whole lot of lying. Fletcher’s reputation as a bold faced liar precedes him and he’s hand picked to represent a morally bankrupt alduterer in a divorce case. She’s due for a big payout, but only if she and Fletcher lie their way into it. There’s just one problem. Fletcher’s son, Max, makes a wish the night before that throws a wrench into the entire plan. He makes a wish that his father, Fletcher, can’t lie for an entire day. Unfortunately for Fletcher, it comes true.
So, Flecher can’t lie. Right Speech is achieved. Roll credits. Right? Not quite.
Um, my dad? He’s a liar…
– Max Reede
Being Brutally Honest Isn’t Right Speech. It’s Nuanced.
Right Speech is a big deal in Buddhism. It’s one of the Five Precepts all Buddhists vow to live by, it’s also a practice on the Eightfold path. But what is Right Speech anyway? Does it mean you’re always right? Is some Karen berating a Starbucks employee for putting three, instead of four, espresso shots in their venti salted carmel mocha oatmilk macchiato frappuccino practicing right speech because “The customer is always right”? Is a husband replying “yes” to his wife when she asks if she looks fat in her new dress Right Speech so they can go back to playing video games? Are you practicing right speech when you tell the cashier at Whole Foods all about your messy divorce or childhood trauma when they ask “How are you doing today?” when ringing up your groceries? Not quite.
The Buddha was very specific when he defined right speech.
“abstinence from false speech, abstinence from malicious speech, abstinence from harsh speech, and abstinence from idle chatter.”
–The Buddha
Basically, what The Buddha is say is “don’t lie, don’t say things to hurt people’s feelings, don’t use foul language or be a downer, don’t gossip, and generally don’t talk smack”. Punk rock Buddhist Monk Brad Warner sums it up quite nicely with the title of his Dogen inspired book “Don’t be a Jerk“. Which, by the way, if you haven’t read you certainly should after you finish watching Liar Liar.
We see these examples of false Right Speech sprinkled throughout the movie. Before realizing he’s been cursed by a child’s birthday wish we see Fletcher spew a plethora of hurtful truths. He roasts an entire boardroom of executives and attorneys.
Starting with his boss who he calls a:
A pedantic, pontificating, pretentious bastard, a belligerent old fart, a worthless, steaming pile of cow dung!
Moving on to a colleague who he calls out for having bad breath caused by gingivitis. The scene climaxes in Fletcher insulting a colleagues toupee, ripping it off his head and sticking it against the wall like a bird that flew head first into a window pane. At other points in the film he responds “your cholesterol” to an overweight colleague asking him “What’s up?”. Tells subordinates they’re not important enough for him to remember. Tells his son “real beauty is on the inside” is something “only ugly people say or believe to feel better about themselves”. And generally hurts anyone that comes across his path with unfortunate truths.
While these scenes make us laugh in the context of a film we’d undoubtedly be hurt by such truths in our real lives. They illustrate a very important point. Right Speech isn’t brutal honesty. It’s a complex and nuanced practice. Fletcher wasn’t technically wrong when he said any of these things, but they still had negative impact on the people he said them to. None of what he says is right speech according to The Buddha.
Right Speech is based on Mindful Speech and is dependent on adhering to other practices on the Eightfold Path. Karma plays a big part. If the result of your speech has negative impact on others it’s not right speech. Lying to get your way isn’t right speech. It leads to a negative cause and effect, or Karma. It can have negative impact on those around you. Like disappointing your son, Max, when you get his hopes up that he will play catch with you only for you to end up sleeping with a Partner at your law firm in the hopes of furthering your career. In order to achieve Right Speech you must also engage in Right Listening, a subsect of Right Speech.
Right Speech is Right Listening. Right Listening Is Right Speech.
Fletchers wife tells him repeatedly that he isn’t being there for his son. He hears her but doesn’t listen. His son tells him as well. He’s too wrapped up in his career to really hear them and, as a result, his priorities are all out of line. Fletcher isn’t able to see the suffering he’s causing those around him. He does to some degree, but he allows other needs to override his desire to be a good father. In order to start speaking in a way that is true to Right Speech he must engage in other practices on the Eightfold Path. Right Mindfulness and Right View.
Fletcher Achieves Right Speech By Achieving Right Mindfulness and Right View.
In the climax of the film Fletcher delivers a heartfelt apology to his son, Max. At first, the viewer is led to believe this outpouring of emotion is the result of the wish. But it is revealed that the effects of the wish dissipated moments before he delivers the following words.
I’m a dope max. All this time you’ve been here and i could see you anytime i feel like but I didn’t… I love you more than anything else in the world Max, and you know it’s true. I couldn’t say it if it wasn’t true. Not today. I love you. And I’ll never hurt you again.
-Fletcher Reede
Fletcher says this with the viewers thinking it’s part of the wish. It’s later revealed he says these heartfelt words after the wish has lost its power. It’s the real truth. Fletcher wants to be honest with his son from this point forward. Not just just because of Right Speech but also because of Right Mindfulness and Right View. They go hand in hand. He learns to use Right Speech through the other practices.
Right Mindfulness is the practice of remaining focused on the body, on feelings, on mind, and thoughts or “mental qualities.” As Fletcher is laying there, strapped to a gurney, waiting to be transported to the hospital and later jail for stealing an airport stair car he becomes overwhelming aware of the reality of his situation. His physical pain is a metaphor for the emotional pain he has caused his family and all those around him. His connection with his body makes him aware of the pain his karma has inflicted on others. He becomes overwhelmingly aware of aware of his thoughts, feelings, and bodily sensations in the present moment without judgment or the facade of all these decisions he made being done in the name of furthering his career.
Right View is a concept that focuses on understanding suffering, its causes, and how to end it. Prior to his act of “grand theft stair car” Fletcher has an epiphany. After being bailed out of jail by his loyal secretary he realizes he loves his son more than anything else in the world. He gleefully runs through the streets shouting “I LOVE MY SON!” to every passerby. He stops at a homeless man that he previously snubbed, giving him all the spare change in his pockets while letting him know:
TAKE EVERYTHING! But it’s not gonna make you happy.
–Fletcher Reede
In a moment of enlightenment Fletcher achieves Right View. He realizes what is most important to him. His son. He becomes aware of the fact that his son is the most important thing in his life and that neglecting him is the cause of not only his own suffering but the suffering of those around him. He realizes the interdependence of it all. His divorce, his loneliness, his ex-wife and son’s suffering. It’s all caused by him having Wrong View. Pursing his career, and the money associated with it, are causing harm to himself and all those around him.
From this point on, Fletcher is able to speak truthfully, with our without a wish forcing him to. His realignment of priorities is what makes him able to deliver his heartfelt speech. It’s a valuable lesson on the Nobel Eightfold Path. It’s not enough to practice a few of the tenets. You can’t pick and choose. In order to eliminate suffering you must take a comprehensive approach to your practice. Like all things in Samsara the path is interdependent on all of its individual pieces. Engaging in all practices makes achieving the result of each individual practice easier to achieve. Without Fletcher’s moment of Right View Right Speech would not have been possible.