Your Conscious, Friendly Mind – Day 16
Your Conscious, Friendly Mind Day 16
Vow to Bless All and Harm None with Our Words
The gift of speech is so commonplace to human beings that we fail to appreciate the true magnitude of its power to bless or to harm. Words have incredible power. That power, how we can use it to bless ourselves and others, how we misuse it to hurt ourselves and others, and the thoughtless habits we fall into with regard to it, all offer us an immense resource for cultivating mindfulness.
We are all insensitive from time to time. There are times when we regret something we say. We lash out in anger. We gossip. We fall into teasing without realizing the personal cost to the one on the receiving end of our humor. We can be oblivious to the threshold at which a joke becomes ridicule. We need to take care when we are speaking, so that we are not doing so at the expense of anyone.
In a group, we often derive enjoyment at the cost of others. We talk easily of others’ faults and weaknesses, often simply because we don’t know how else to keep a conversation going. We find endless and myriad ways to put others down — in order to elevate ourselves in our own mind or in the minds of others — all without grasping the damage we are doing to ourselves and to those about whom we speak so harshly.
Without conscious awareness, words can be hurtful. We realize it too late, after the damage is done, when the words cannot be taken back. Then, any effort we make to correct our mistake often only makes the situation markedly worse.
