"What is the point of the Noble Eightfold Path? The whole point of the path is awakening, enlightenment, and every factor in the path is designed to further our progress towards understanding the nature of the human mind and the nature of life. Right speech, speech that's a noble factor, that's a path factor, is speech that leads to awakening. It's using this capacity to listen, to speak, to communicate in the service of awakening. So just this is a fascinating contemplation to step back and consider how often are we using our words and our speech and our conversations in the service of enlightenment, in the service of our spiritual practice. So this is one way just to begin to contemplate right speech. And one of the things that I hope you will take away is the possibility that we can make communication not an extra, but an integral part of our spiritual practice. That communication itself can be a vehicle for contemplative practice and transformation."