Whatever You Say....

"Truthful words are not beautiful;
beautiful words are not truthful;
Good words are not persuasive;
persuasive words are not good."

-Lao-tzu in Tao Te Ching


Reading the passage above, what comes into your mind? Have you ever given this a thought? Have you ever thought of the effect of the words that you're saying? Have you ever thought about those words as important? 

My loved ones have always told me that I should be careful with the words that come out of my mouth because those words cannot be taken back and once those words have inflicted pain, the pain will take a very long time to heal and though it does heal, the person may forget what the exact words that I said were but they will never forget how I made them feel. 

Now, back to the passage. This passage was written by Lao-tzu, a philosopher of ancient China who wrote the book Tao Te Ching from which this passage was gotten. He says in this passage that certain words are confused with certain thoughts. For example, we often confuse spontaneity of knowledge with truth and Good with that of beautiful.. We somehow overlook that beautiful things aren't always good, beautiful words aren't always true, impressive words aren't always facts, ugly things aren't always bad and painful words aren't always discouraging. There will always be instances, instances where we have to really think about what we are hearing or what we are saying. We can't just assume that what a person says is not for us or for us. We should ponder upon such words, such things, before judging their purpose and their worth.

As I was reading this passage, I have come to a realization that it is easier said than done, to say that we should watch our words because it still depends upon the hearer upon how they will interpret, understand and accept the things that we are saying and so all we can really do is to state things completely and clearly and never assume that the person truly have understood the things that we're saying without them showing us that they already really did. Another is that we should think before we judge how the person or a thing looks like, how he or she acts, how he or she functions, and what he or she says. 

Generally speaking, the world is too complicated for us to assume anything about anything at all. Things' meanings and worth change in a wink and I guess all we have to do now is to trust our instincts, be careful in judging, and trust the One who really knows everything of this world. Again, this is all really easier said than done as the cliche line goes, but c'mon, they're still worth giving a thought. Even I can say that I haven't really thought of these things until now and it really is a great challenge to try and change my ways when it comes to handling words since these are one of the most powerful products of the abilities that were bestowed upon mankind.



Have a Happy WORLD of WORDS!