The white lie

Question and Answer for Life

By the Most Ven. Phrabhavanaviriyakhun
Edited from the Luang Phaw answers the questions program broadcasted on DMC

Q1: Those who often do the white lie; will they get any sin?
Q2: If I want to keep the 8 precept all the time but I have to meet the customers and take them to the entertainment places, how should I do?

Question: The 4th precept is about the lying. It means you must not tell a lie at all, doesn’t it? Is there any exception?

Answer: Certainly, lie is not the truth so you must not tell a lie at all. Even if you do the white lie for other’s happiness, it is not reasonable. If you lie and others will be happy or unhappy, it is still the lie. It is incorrect.
This kind of questions I often hear from the lustful husband. They often said that they never told a lie to anyone except their wives because they wanted their wives to be happy, so they should not get any sin. Not at all, they surely got sin. Their wives were beside them for a long time but they told their wives a lie.

Those who often tell a lie for other’s happiness should determine yourselves that you dealt everything in your lives carefully or carelessly. If you did it carelessly and then told a lie to solve the problems time by time, it means that you have something wrong hidden and the rest of your life will not be good or smooth at all if you don’t hurry to solve.

Question: I made a vow that I would keep the 8 precepts all the time, however, I have to meet the customers because of work, how can I do?

Answer: I will give you my real experience. Before I have been ordained, I had to meet the customers and sat with them while they were drinking. I could do it without drinking any alcohol. When they drank alcohol, I drank soft drink and ate the side dishes. I kept the 5 precepts at that time, not the 8 precepts, and worked as a salesman. Sometimes, I had to have a little party, the customers wanted to drink alcohol, they drank but I did not, I ate the side dishes.

In fact, the side dishes for the drunk were very delicious such as the grilled meat, so I enjoyed eating the side dishes very much. When I was thirsty, I drank the soft drink. My friends or customers weren’t angry with me. Later, my drunk friends didn’t want me to go with them and named me as “The Side Dish Eater.”

So, when they would go to drink, they told me frankly that they didn’t want me to go because I ate all of their side dishes. However, we still were friends and eventually, many closed friends who drank alcohol were considerate with me and quitted drinking. So you can initiate my method to do.

Translated by Chadawee Chaipooripat