We must learn the science of self-expression...if we cannot say something useful, there is no need to become involved in the conversation. If we cannot say something that inspires, at least say nothing that destroys...
Let us try, therefore, to make everything that we say valuable. Let us quietly turn away from a book that hurts us. Let us turn off the radio program that helps build up a negative disillusionment in ourselves. Let us also turn away from groups of people who are dedicated to violence and discord and who have no constructive solution to problems.
Instead of becoming involved in these things and being polluted by them, let us quietly face the problems of life, examine the values in situations around us, and through the use of the best faculties that we possess, quietly prepare a constructive strategy by means of which we can live better every day...
There are things we have to listen to, but in quietude we can weigh them. Also in quietude we try to establish a point of contact with that part of ourselves that is able to see through the circumstances to the rules and laws behind them...
We are not here to judge each other. We are here to help each other grow. If we cannot do big things at the moment, we can at least take our part away from the stream of pollution that is destroying our integrity. If we will put this leadership upon our own tongues we can do a great deal to make this a better world for all of us...
Let us try, therefore, to make everything that we say valuable. Let us quietly turn away from a book that hurts us. Let us turn off the radio program that helps build up a negative disillusionment in ourselves. Let us also turn away from groups of people who are dedicated to violence and discord and who have no constructive solution to problems.
Instead of becoming involved in these things and being polluted by them, let us quietly face the problems of life, examine the values in situations around us, and through the use of the best faculties that we possess, quietly prepare a constructive strategy by means of which we can live better every day...
There are things we have to listen to, but in quietude we can weigh them. Also in quietude we try to establish a point of contact with that part of ourselves that is able to see through the circumstances to the rules and laws behind them...
We are not here to judge each other. We are here to help each other grow. If we cannot do big things at the moment, we can at least take our part away from the stream of pollution that is destroying our integrity. If we will put this leadership upon our own tongues we can do a great deal to make this a better world for all of us...
- Manly Palmer Hall -
Excerpted from Lecture #190
"COMPASSION AND COMPATIBILITY: The Lost Art of Sharing Thoughts"
© 1975
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