Friday, May 7, 2010


Elder's Meditation of the Day
"If those bad words come, I let them come in one ear and go out the other. I never let them come out of my mouth. If a bad word comes in your ear and then comes out of your mouth, it will go someplace and hurt somebody. If I did that, that hurt would come back twice as hard on me."
--Wallace Black Elk, LAKOTA
What do we do with temptations when they come? What do we do when we hear gossip? What do we do when we hear bad things? If we hear these things and pass them on we will not only hurt the other person, but we will do harm to ourselves. We must be careful not to hurt others. Whatever we sow we will simultaneously reap for ourselves. We must be accountable for our own actions.
Great Spirit, today, let no words come from my lips that would hurt another.

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On gossip  from other Faiths and Spiritual Traditions:

Let him not be addicted to gossiping. (The Dharma Sutras, Apastamba Prasna I, Patala  1, Khanda  3)
I praise forever the Lord, the Giver of peace; I keep Him enshrined deep within my heart.
How can the self-willed manmukh gossip about those who are embellished and exalted in the True Word of the Shabad? 
 (Shri Guru Granth Sahib, Section 30 - Raag Saarang)
They gossip about others, and lose their credit, and expose themselves as well. (Shri Guru Granth Sahib, Section 20 - Raag Bilaaval)
From joy in hearing useless things there may directly arise distraction of the imagination, gossiping, envy, rash judgements and vacillating thoughts; and from these arise many other and pernicious evils. (St. John of the Cross, Ascent of Mount Carmel)
But if we gossip about another in all corners and stir the filth, no one will be reformed, and afterwards when we are to stand up and bear witness, we deny having said so. (Martin Luther, Large Catechism)
Again the matter would have ended there, if gossip-mongers had not been at work -- and chief among them was 'Abdu'llah Ibn Ubayy, 'A'ishah herself was blissfully unaware of the monstrous insinuations, and could not understand Muhammad's aloofness. (H.M. Balyuzi, Muhammad and the Course of Islam, p. 105)
THE essence of these words is this: they that tread the path of faith, they that thirst for the wine of certitude, must cleanse themselves of all that is earthly -- their ears from idle talk, their minds from vain imaginings, their hearts from worldly affections, their eyes from that which perisheth. They should put their trust in God, and, holding fast unto Him, follow in His way.  (Baha'u'llah, The Kitab-i-Iqan, p. 3)
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 Mastering others is strength.
 Mastering yourself makes you fearless.
 Lao Tzu

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