Friday, March 13, 2009

Words can be misunderstood

I met a Buddhist monk in India whom I thought was unusually quiet. There was once that he observed silence for a few years, avoiding all unnecessary speech. The reason for doing so was that he was fed up with all the misunderstanding and problems that arose as a result of too much idle chatter.

Is it not true that we are so often misunderstood? Sometimes, even the words we utter are often not what we mean. and at other times, we are perceived and judged through just our words with the real picture being lost.

Anything to learn from this? I believe there is. One is to remember the story of the big fish being hooked because he could not keep his mouth shut. Another is to hone the art of articulation which then can lead us to wearing masks and losing our identity.

Is it not better to practise mindfulness and make the maximum use of all our faculties?

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