Author: clfuu

As Buddhist teacher Thanissaro Bhikkhu explains, “Right speech, explained in negative terms, means avoiding four types of harmful speech: lies (words spoken with the intent of misrepresenting the truth); divisive speech (spoken with the intent of creating rifts between people); harsh speech (spoken with the intent of hurting another person’s feelings); and idle chatter (spoken with no purposeful intent at all).” Often phrased in the negative, but it can also be seen in a positive way.  To practice Right Speech means to tell the truth, to speak warmly and gently, and to talk only when necessary

How is the practice of right speech connected to cultivating compassion?

“Let us have the courage to sit in the unknowing, to look for the answers even if they are to sit with our own questions, to be willing to be authentic with ourselves, to be ready to bring our face to the world.” -Katie Kandarian

How have you sat in the unknowing?

Part of me is searching desperately for trust, wondering how I will find it after having had it broken again and again and again. I think that at least part of the answer is found in compassion—the compassion we have to have for ourselves for the very human condition of not knowing a situation or a person fully—and the practice of opening ourselves up to experiencing things the way others do so that we might learn, so that we might make our picture of this world a fuller one. -Rev. Michael Tino (CLF)

How can you embrace the uncertainty of now knowing how someone else experiences the world?

When theology is lived in the midst of community, when it is given life as the bonds that connect each and every one of us as an interdependent web of creation, we understand our principles as living, breathing, organisms that require our care.  We understand that affirming and promoting inherent worth and dignity (yours, and mine, and those of the people outside of this room) is a process, an ongoing challenge to meet people where they are and experience them as who they are. -Rev. Michael Tino (CLF)

How can you meet someone where they are and truly experience them today?

“Right action” is defined by those things that help us live our values in the world. Buddhists follow specific precepts of right action–not killing, stealing, etc. Unitarian Universalists look to our shared covenant to help us define right action.

What does “right action” mean to you?