Mindful Speech
What's Mindful Speech (also known as 'right speech') all about? It's the dharma teaching that it's important to watch what comes OUT of your mouth... Here's what he said to the crowd, and it was pretty radical stuff for its day:
Pay attention and try to understand what I mean. The food you put into your mouth doesn't make you unclean before God. It's the words that come out of your mouth athat defile you."
Then the disciples came and said to Him, "Do You know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this statement?" But He answered and said, "Every plant which My heavenly Father did not plant shall be uprooted. Let them alone; they are blind guides of the blind, and if a blind man guides a blind man, both will fall into a pit." Peter said to Him, "Explain the parable to us." So Jesus tried again:
Don't you know what I'm talking about by now? Don't you understand that everything that goes into the mouth passes into the stomach, and is eliminated? But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile someone. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, vulgar deeds, stealing, murder, unfaithfulness in marriage, pride false witness, slander, greed, meanness, indecency, envy, and insults. These are the things which defile you; but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile you."
Talking the Talk. Right speech. Mindful speech. That's Jesus' simple, powerful teaching, as recorded in the Gospel of Matthew, 15:10-20. Interesting to think about... Put positively, it can be taken as: tell the truth in a friendly and warm and gentle way, from a motivation of loving kindness or metta. You might look at using mindful speech to foster hope and relieve others from their suffering, by cultivating loving speech and deep listening. Knowing that words can create happiness or suffering, you can try to learn to speak truthfully, but not in ways that you think may cause division or discord, and not to spread news you're unsure of, or to criticize or condemn things you're unsure about... and when in doubt you can always refrain from speaking.
