Source: Essential | Great Middle Way
Jan 4, 2018
Let us be careful in speech,
be well-restrained in mind,
and physically, too, let us abstain from harm.
Let us purify these three courses of action
and accomplish the practice of the Noble Eightfold Path
made known by all the Buddhas.
—Buddha Shakyamuni, Dharmapada
Sometimes we speak clumsily and create internal knots in others. Then we say, “I was just telling the truth.” It may be the truth, but if our way of speaking causes unnecessary suffering, it is not Right Speech. The truth must be presented in ways that others can accept. Words that damage or destroy are not Right Speech. Before you speak, understand the person you are speaking to. Consider each word carefully before you say anything, so that your speech is “Right” in both form and content.
– Thich Nhat Hanh
from the book “The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching: Transforming Suffering into Peace, Joy, and Liberation”
ISBN: 978-0767903691 – http://amzn.to/17VOZql
“I have noticed that people are dealing too much with the negative, with what is wrong… Why not try the other way, to look into the patient and see positive things, to just touch those things and make them bloom?”
~Thich Nhat Hanh~
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