Continued work on the Fourth Precept

Another few days have gone by and my struggle to maintain mindfullness of speech continues. I would like to say that I have managed to be mindfull at all times and have rigorously practiced right speech but if I said as much I would not be speaking truly and so further violating the precept ! I have at least been more aware of my speech and have tried to lessen my propensity to speak of others when they are not present. I must say that at my workplace, a secondary school, this resolve is much harder to maintain. It seems that one thing that is quite common for those of us at my school is to speak of others, more often than not in a less than flattering way. It seems to me that talking about others is a favourite topic, perhaps because it is an easy thing to speak on. I shall have to redouble my efforts to be mindfull with my speech !

Here I am sitting at home taking care of my sick daughter..time to add a posting to my blog. I thought I I might discuss the Fourth Precept. I find that the version of this precept as postulated by Thich Naht Hanh to be quite comprehensive. It goes like this : The Fourth Mindfulness Training:Aware of the suffering caused by unmindful speech and the inability to listen to others, I vow to cultivate loving speech and deep listening in order to bring joy and happiness to others and relieve others of their suffering. Knowing that words can create happiness or suffering, I vow to learn to speak truthfully, with words that inspire self-confidence, joy and hope. I am determined not to spread news that I do not know to be certain and not to criticize or condemn things of which I am not sure. I will refrain from uttering words that can cause division or discord, or that can cause the family or community to break. I will make all efforts to reconcile and resolve all conflicts, however small. Needless to say , this is rather a tall order ! I think however that this precept is one of the more basic one in which to at least make an effort to comply with. If I am perfectly honest though I find it quite difficult to keep rthis precept in my day to day life. I find it far too easy to speak ill of others, especially in what would best be considered casual day to day conversation. It's not that I say anything truly hurtful, but much of what I say about others I would definitely not say if they were present. Perhaps that would be a good rule to go by, not to say anything about anyone else that I would not say if that person was there. So much of what I say is just idle chatter. If I was more careful of what I said I am sure I would talk far less.

I will have to try and be more mindfull of my speech and so come closer to living up to this precept.