Who am I to criticize?
Criticism requires immense love, a great amount of respect, the absolute negligence of negative emotions and a state of balance.
Criticism with any negative energy will fire back at you and cause damage to both. When criticism has anger it is selfish. Selfishness serves the ego and squashes love. What can one achieve with angry words? How can I not react to things I don't like? And how to deal with harsh words spoken to me? It's very important for me to cleanse my heart, fill it with love and wisdom, for my speech to be right.
There is a very useful verse in the Gita on Perfection of Speech.
Speech with causes no disturbance in the other; Speech that is Truthful - Pleasant - and Beneficial (Satyam-Priyam-Hitam);
Speech that practices the study of the scriptures; these constitute the "austerity of speech" (Gita 17.15)
See speech has to have all three ingredients, truthful, loving, and beneficial. It should be sweet but not be pretentious sweetness, because it has to be truthful, but not bitter truth because it will disturb the other person, and it should be for the benefit of the other person, not for selfish satisfaction.
I have failed miserably many times by speaking angry words, with despise and dislike. It doesn't matter what the provocation was, or how bad the cause. Reaction is worse than wrong action. One can only control one's own behavior and change oneself. No one can change anyone. No matter how bad the other person is behaving, I need to remain detached, and most of all have unconditional love and wisdom. I don't know if I can be perfect every time, but I can at least aim at being right more than fifty percent of the time.
Criticism requires immense love, a great amount of respect, the absolute negligence of negative emotions and a state of balance.
Criticism with any negative energy will fire back at you and cause damage to both. When criticism has anger it is selfish. Selfishness serves the ego and squashes love. What can one achieve with angry words? How can I not react to things I don't like? And how to deal with harsh words spoken to me? It's very important for me to cleanse my heart, fill it with love and wisdom, for my speech to be right.
There is a very useful verse in the Gita on Perfection of Speech.
Speech with causes no disturbance in the other; Speech that is Truthful - Pleasant - and Beneficial (Satyam-Priyam-Hitam);
Speech that practices the study of the scriptures; these constitute the "austerity of speech" (Gita 17.15)
See speech has to have all three ingredients, truthful, loving, and beneficial. It should be sweet but not be pretentious sweetness, because it has to be truthful, but not bitter truth because it will disturb the other person, and it should be for the benefit of the other person, not for selfish satisfaction.
I have failed miserably many times by speaking angry words, with despise and dislike. It doesn't matter what the provocation was, or how bad the cause. Reaction is worse than wrong action. One can only control one's own behavior and change oneself. No one can change anyone. No matter how bad the other person is behaving, I need to remain detached, and most of all have unconditional love and wisdom. I don't know if I can be perfect every time, but I can at least aim at being right more than fifty percent of the time.
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