A place to escape and view positive humanity.
Here are the three gates the Buddha says you should go through before you speak. I remember another book on Zen that spoke about being very careful and thinking through before you speak. I’m sure it was related to this.
The trouble is that when we get in high emotion we have a tendency of blurting out what is on our mind before answering these three questions and make things worse. It may be tough for you to catch yourself but with practice, it gets easier to catch yourself the next time.
This is a quote that copies off of the Three Gates Buddha Quote. “Before you speak, let your words pass through three gates: Is it true? Is it necessary? Is it kind?”
I just checked and it looks like I did not have that quote entered into the website yet but know that I have it on here somewhere.
There are some people that if they followed either of these quotes you would hardly hear a peep out of them! Which is good for the rest of us! It is also similar to the quote, “Before you speak, does it improve upon the silence?” That is another quote that I have that has not been entered into this website yet.
Keeping any of these quotes/rules in mind will also help you from accidentally starting an argument, improve efficiency, and generally make the world a better place.
Quick Note: This also reminds me of the Aretha Franklin song think from the Blues Brothers movie.