Wednesday, December 18, 2024

Via Ram Dass - Love Serve Remember Foundation // Words of Wisdom - December 18, 2024 💌


"I used to be a person who spoke of my soul like it was a heart or a liver or something like that. Now I treat my soul as a second perspective within myself. So I go into watching number two (soul) watching number one (ego).

Soul has a very simple motive structure - it wants to meld with number three (God). It wants to go into the All and Everything. Number two came from a very different space than number one came from. The soul came directly from spirit. The incarnation came with an operating system, like a piece of software, called the ego.

Number one stops at the end of the incarnation, death. But the soul doesn’t. It just keeps galumphing along, through one and another and another. I don’t know about you, but I would like to be identified with my soul when I die."
 
- Ram Dass

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Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Speech: Refraining from Frivolous Speech

 


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RIGHT SPEECH
Refraining from Frivolous Speech
Frivolous speech is unhealthy. Refraining from frivolous speech is healthy. (MN 9) Abandoning frivolous speech, one refrains from frivolous speech. One speaks at the right time, speaks only what is fact, and speaks about what is good. One speaks what is worthy of being overheard, words that are reasonable, moderate, and beneficial. (DN 1) One practices thus: "Others may speak frivolously, but I shall abstain from frivolous speech." (MN 8)

When a person commits an offense of some kind, one should not hurry to reprove them but rather should consider whether or not to speak. If you will not be troubled, the other person will not be hurt, and you can help them emerge from what is unhealthy and establish them in what is healthy, then it is proper to speak. (MN 103)
Reflection
The fourth category of right speech is refraining from frivolous speech. This is not meant to stifle us entirely or to reduce human expression to essential facts and nothing more; rather, it is an invitation to pay more careful attention to what we say. It is healthy to speak what is true, to speak about what is good, and to be moderate in our speech, even if other people are not. What can you say that is helpful?

Daily Practice
Has it ever occurred to you that some people speak just for the sake of speaking, or say anything and everything that comes to mind, or go on indefinitely repeating the same stories? See if you can notice yourself doing this from time to time. Practice being aware enough of your own speech patterns to notice whether you are always saying something useful or necessary or valuable. Sometimes it is better to stay silent.

Tomorrow: Reflecting upon Social Action
One week from today: Refraining from False Speech

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Via Daily Dharma: Healing Within

 

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Healing Within

The moment when you are truly present, and you touch something so deeply, the truth of it shakes. 

Sister Dang Nghiem, “Healing Within”


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