THE DHAMMAPADA

 

“Don’t speak harshly to anyone;

                What you say will be said back to you.

Hostile speech is painful,

                And you will meet with retaliation.”

                I feel like this phrase is very familiar to me because it is very similar to a phrase that my mother use to say to me when I was a younger child. When I was younger I was known for saying very cruel and unkind things to my siblings and sometimes others. My mom would always say in her Spanish accent “Sofia if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.” She would always reassure me that fate will bite me in the butt if I would keep being a disobedient child.

“Conquer anger with non-anger;

                Conquer wickedness with goodness;

Conquer stinginess with giving,

                And a liar with the truth.”

                I am raised in a very religious family and this is one of the main concepts that I am taught constantly. It’s interesting that a lot of religions have a lot of the same teachings. Yet this is a very hard concept to grasp. It takes a very strong person to be nice to someone that has hurt you. But the point of this IS to make a person stronger mentally. This phrase reminds me of a post I saw the other day on facebook which said “smile at your enemies, it kills them.”