Cultivating Skillfulness.
not every thought needs to be spoken…. #WednesdayWisdom
Our thoughts, speech and actions can be skillful or unskillful. They have the potential to lead us into happiness or suffering. It is helpful to remember that not all the thoughts which we have need to be articulated or acted upon. How many times do you say to yourself: ‘I wish I hadn’t said/ done that?’
Thoughts are where we build our intentions. Sometimes we act with good intentions but the outcome still goes wrong. That’s because we are not in control of how other people respond to us and we are not in control of nature or worldly events. Of course, if our intentions our bad to begin with there is only going to be one outcome.
Although it’s not always possible, due to the circumstances we find ourselves in, to ‘count to 10’ before we speak or respond it is possible to practice being mindful so that we are aware of ourselves. When we develop the habit of guarding ourselves continually, we know to take a moment to collect our thoughts and use our powers of discrimination to decide whether something is worthy of becoming speech or not. This would result in us being skillful.
The Buddha taught us to cultivate skillfulness in our understanding, thinking, speech, action, livelihood, effort, mindfulness, and concentration.
- don’t let unskillful thinking stir you up so that you forget yourself
- learn to ‘know’ your own mind and check your intentions
- learn to rely on your own integrity to filter speech and actions
May this teaching lead you to happiness; may it help you grow in truth. May you be freed from the suffering of birth and death.
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