Responding to Worldly Questions Namo Buddhaya!

People always ask "How are you?", "Isn't that beautiful/horrible", "You are so lucky/unlucky!", "Did you enjoy/like that", and so on.


  How do I respond to these things in a way that doesn't identify with
  the aspects that cause clinging, such as saying my day is good and
  favorable rather than bad or saying I dislike this meal, and so on.
  More specifically, how do I respond to these and other questions like
  so in a way that doesn't push toward a worldly condition such as
  pleasure and pain, status and disgrace, etc.?


Metta!
Conversations may make one feel superior/inferior, good/bad, etc. Your conversation response can be anything within the bounds of right speech (abstaining from lying, from divisive speech, from abusive speech, &amp; from idle chatter). Your mental response should be on account of whatever feeling that arises either pleasant, unpleasant or neutral one should know the sensation as such and that it is impermanent and not worth clinging to.

If he feels a pleasant feeling,

he understands that it is impermanent;
he understands that it is not to be clung to;
he understands that there is no delight in it.

If he feels a painful feeling,

he understands that it is impermanent;
he understands that it is not to be clung to;
he understands that there is no delight in it.

If he feels a neutral feeling,

he understands that it is impermanent;
he understands that it is not to be clung to;
he understands that there is no delight in it.

If he feels a pleasant feeling, he feels it in a detached manner.
If he feels a painful feeling, he feels it in a detached manner.
If he feels a neutral feeling, he feels it in a detached manner.

Dhātu Vibhaṅga Sutta