True speech. Truth is known by practice. Only. Without sincerity, there
can be no knowledge of truth, and true speech is the beginning of all
sincerity. Truth, in all its native beauty and original simplicity, consists in
abandoning and not doing all those things which are untrue, and embracing in doing
all those things which are true. True speech is therefore one of the elementary
beginnings in the life of truth. Falsehood and all forms of deception, slander,
and all forms of evil speaking, these must be totally abandoned and abolished
before the mind can receive even a small degree of spiritual enlightenment. The lyre
in slanderer is lost in darkness. So deep is his darkness that he cannot
distinguish between good and evil, And he persuades himself that his lying in evil
speaking are necessary in good, that he is thereby protecting himself and other people.
Let the would be student of higher things look to himself and beware of
self delusion. If he is given to uttering words that deceive, or to
speaking evil of others, If he speaks an insincerity, envy, or malice,
then he has not yet begun to study higher things. He may be
studying metaphysics or miracles, or psychic phenomena or astral wonders. He may be
studying how to commune with invisible beings, to travel invisibly during sleep, or
to produce curious phenomena. He may even study spirituality theoretically and as a mere
book study. But if he is a deceiver and a backbiter, the higher
life is hidden from him. For the higher things are these uprightness, sincerity,
innocence, purity, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, humility, patience,
pity, sympathy, self sacrifice, joy, good will, love. And
he who would study them, know them, and make them his own,
must practice them. There is no other way. Lying and evil speaking belong
to the lowest forms of spiritual ignorance, and there can be no such thing
as spiritual enlightenment while they are practiced. Their parents are selfishness and hatred.
Slander is akin to lying, but it is even more subtle, as it
is frequently associated with indignation, and by assuming more successfully the appearance of truth,
it ensnares many who would not tell a deliberate falsehood. For there are
two sides to slander. There is the making of repeating of it, and
there is the listening to it and acting upon it. The slanderer would be
powerless without a listener. Evil words require an ear that is receptive to evil,
in which they may fall before they can flourish. Therefore, he who
listens to a slanderer, who believes it and allows himself to be influenced against
the person whose character and reputation are defamed, is in the same position as
the one who framed or repeated the evil report. The evil speaker is a
positive slander. The evil listener is a passive slander. The two are co
operators in the propagation of evil. Slander is a common vice and a dark
and deadly one. An evil report begins in ignorance and pursues its blind way
and darkness. It generally takes its rise in a misunderstanding. Someone feels that
he or she has been badly treated and filled with indignation and resentment, unburdens
himself to his friends and others in vehement language, exaggerating the enormity of the
supposed offense, on account of the feeling of injury by which he is possessed,
listen to and sympathized with the listeners without hearing the other person's version of
what has taken place, And on no other proof than the violent words of
an angry man or woman, become cold in their attitude towards the one spoken
against, and repeat to others what they have been told, And as such
repetition is always more or less inaccurate. A distorted and altogether untrue report is
soon passing from mouth to mouth. It is because slander is such a common
vice that it can work the suffering and injury that it does. It is
because so many not deliberate wrongdoers, and unconscious of the nature of the evil
into which they so easily fall, are ready to allow themselves to be influenced
against one whom they have hitherto regarded as honorable, that an evil report can
do its deadly work. Yet its work is only amongst those who have not
altogether acquired the virtue of true speech, the cause of which is a truth
loving mind. When one who has not entirely freed himself from repeating or believing
an evil report about another hears of an evil report about himself, his mind
becomes a flame and burning resentment. His sleep is broken, and his peace
of mind is destroyed. He thinks the cause of all his suffering is the
other man and what the other man has said about him, and is ignorant
of the truth that the root and cause of his suffering lies in his own
readiness to believe in evil report about another. The virtuous man, he who
has attained to true speech, and whose mind is sealed against even the appearance
of evil speaking, cannot be injured and disturbed by any evil reports concerning himself.
And although his reputation may for a time be stained in the minds of
those who are prone to suggestions of evil, his integrity remains untouched and his
character unsoiled. For no one can be stained by the evil deeds of another,
but only by his own wrong doing. And so through all misrepresentation,
misunderstanding, and contumely he is untroubled and unrevengeful. His sleep is undisturbed,
and his mind remains in peace. True speech is the beginning of a pure,
wise and well ordered life. If one would attain to purity of life,
if he would lessen the evil and suffering of the world, let him
abandon falsehood and slander and thought and word, Let him avoid even the appearance
of these things. For there are no lies in slanders so deadly as those
which are half truths. And let him not be a participant in evil speaking
by listening to it. Let him also have compassion on the evil speaker,
knowing how such a one is binding himself to suffering and unrest. For no
liar can know the bliss of truth. No slander can enter into the Kingdom
of peace by the words which he utters. Is a man's spiritual condition declared
by these? Also is he finally and infallibly adjudged. For as the Divine
Master of the Christian world has declared, by thy words, shalt thou be
justified, and by thy words shalt thou be condemned,