Greetings char101,
char101 wrote: ↑Fri Nov 22, 2019 1:18 am
This topic is not about the listener (reader) but the speaker (writer). My suggestion is if one is going to tell off that people are wrong, write it as disagree instead. It is more polite. It is not about how the other party should/could comprehend it.
But what if they are actually wrong? Are people so emotionally fragile, proud and/or attached to their views that they must recoil at such a possibility?
char101 wrote: ↑Fri Nov 22, 2019 1:18 am
Five keys to right speech
"Monks, a statement endowed with five factors is well-spoken, not ill-spoken. It is blameless & unfaulted by knowledgeable people. Which five?
"It is spoken at the right time. It is spoken in truth. It is spoken affectionately. It is spoken beneficially. It is spoken with a mind of good-will."
— AN 5.198
Four ignoble expressions: speech that’s false, divisive, harsh, or nonsensical.
Four noble expressions: refraining from speech that’s false, divisive, harsh, or nonsensical.
https://suttacentral.net/dn33/en/sujato
Yes, and one's Right Speech is for each person to apply and discern themselves. There is nothing there about judgmentally making these assessments on behalf of the speaker, in part because, as pointed out previously by dharmacorps, the listener does not know the motive, intention or mind-state of the speaker.
Well, yes, because that's what the suttas say - not because it was said by someone on the Internet.
Consider this incredibly plausible scenario, one that we often see in the suttas...
Person A possesses Wrong View.
Person B tells Person A that their view is wrong.
Person B directs Person A towards Right View.
Person A becomes established and accomplished in Right View.
Person A is now on the righteous path to nibbana.
If Person A was overly sensitive, attached their views, closed-minded and/or unwilling to listen to Person B because of their personal preferences and proclivities, then Person A would remain a puthujjana.
It is for this reason, that the Dhamma is "the greatest of all gifts"... even if that involves calling out wrongness as wrongness. Let us now rejoice in the Blessed One's words...
MN 38 wrote:So the Blessed One told a certain monk, "Come, monk. In my name, call the monk Sāti the Fisherman's Son, saying, 'The Teacher calls you, friend Sāti.'"
"As you say, lord," the monk answered and, having gone to the monk Sāti the Fisherman's Son, on arrival he said, "The Teacher calls you, friend Sāti."
"As you say, friend," the monk Sāti the Fisherman's Son replied. Then he went to the Blessed One and, on arrival, having bowed down to him, sat to one side. As he was sitting there, the Blessed One said to him, "Is it true, Sāti, that this pernicious view has arisen in you — 'As I understand the Dhamma taught by the Blessed One, it is just this consciousness that runs and wanders on, not another'?"
"Exactly so, lord. As I understand the Dhamma taught by the Blessed One, it is just this consciousness that runs and wanders on, not another."
"Which consciousness, Sāti, is that?"
"This speaker, this knower, lord, that is sensitive here & there to the ripening of good & evil actions."
"And to whom, worthless man, do you understand me to have taught the Dhamma like that? Haven't I, in many ways, said of dependently co-arisen consciousness, 'Apart from a requisite condition, there is no coming-into-play of consciousness'? But you, through your own poor grasp, not only slander us but also dig yourself up [by the root] and produce much demerit for yourself. That will lead to your long-term harm & suffering."
Then the Blessed One said to the monks, "What do you think, monks? Is this monk Sāti, the Fisherman's Son, even warm in this Dhamma & Vinaya?"
"How could he be, lord? No, lord."
When this was said, the monk Sāti, the Fisherman's Son, sat silent, abashed, his shoulders drooping, his head down, brooding, at a loss for words.
Then the Blessed One, seeing that the monk Sāti, the Fisherman's Son, was sitting silent, abashed, his shoulders drooping, his head down, brooding, at a loss for words, said to him, "Worthless man, you will be recognized for your own pernicious viewpoint. I will cross-question the monks on this matter."...
Do you trust the kindness of one possessing boundless metta and karuna?
Or instead, do you take refuge in politeness?
Metta,
Paul.
"Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things."