Whatever one may have witnessed with one’s own eyes — should the speaking of it cause demerit to increase and merit to diminish — the Blessed One declared: “It ought not to be spoken of further.”
Consider well: even in the case of that which one has seen with one’s very own eyes, the Blessed One still enjoined careful reflection and discernment as to whether it should be transmitted or withheld. How much more so, then, when news arrives from another — its truth or falsehood entirely unverified and unestablished — such news must not be passed on.
And yet even beyond this — even when one has verified with certainty that a matter is true — the Blessed One still gave this solemn instruction: should that which one has witnessed, upon being spoken of, cause demerit to increase and merit to diminish — do not speak of it further. Refrain entirely. For in such speech, one incurs the defilement of unwholesome verbal kamma.
Let this therefore be held as an unwavering principle: whatever one has witnessed — if the speaking of it shall cause demerit to grow and merit to be diminished — the Blessed One has expressly instructed that it must not be spoken. It is not to be transmitted further. This is the admonishment the Blessed One has given.
February 23rd, 2015
