“Let truthfulness and courtesy be your adorning”
Often, very much one sincerely wishes and strives to believe that if some people are not truthful, whatever its measure and severity, the incentive is inspired by the sense of courtesy on the part of those who perhaps think that to tell and convey the truth and to be frank and straightforward would not be polite and a considerate action. Of course there are and could be many other reasons which dictate and mislead us to tread a path other than that of truthfulness—and frankly if such deviation is conducted knowingly and with a conscious and persistent will, in the highest essence and reality the measure and the reason of it is actually irrelevant. In that case, whether it is a sharply distant deviation from the right path, or just a clever twist off the road, a “white one” as is often entitled, yet to a fairly polished and refined conscience and in the silence of one’s inner conversation with his/her own mind and heart, it indeed is the same unhealthy, unworthy substance. Within the whirlpool of far too grandiose and exceedingly material cravings and with colorful and loud voices and sounds in our relentlessly imbalanced and one-sided advancements and oblivious over-growths, this matter—truthfulness—may shy away from its crucial appeal and seem just a “thing” of the past; when, on the contrary, this is the one trait which is indispensable and should be inseparable from every individual and collective development and growth, whatever the age and status, however the circumstances and times. Without the mystical power of the “Truth” which inspires and animates “truthfulness”, this brilliant virtue and nobly instrumental phenomena, nothing will have a lasting color nor a meaning and taste; without it nothing else will really work—and it doesn’t. Everything and everyone in its absence, sooner or later goes only from bad to worse, quietly or with trumpeting loudness falls into the abyss of confusion and lost, depressed and disappointed.
“Truthfulness is the foundation of all the virtues of the world of humanity”
—without a foundation there cannot be a safe building, a sheltering edifice and a secure and lasting tower. Likewise, for an interested intelligence and thinking mind it would be obvious and not an exaggerated notion that should humans be lacking in this golden virtue, they will yet be moving and alive, but only without human originality and nobility. If a house may have a few cracks in its foundation—it is logical to accept that it may not collapse at once, although the fact that there do remain some cracks, makes it a sure subject to such an eventual prospect if nothing be done to treat and fix them in the long term. It is because those seemingly insignificant and tolerable defections and cracks open up bigger over the time and ultimately cause the fall and demolition into ruins of an edifice. Similarly, while it could be accepted that a minor ‘untruthfulness’, conducted out of ignorance and being just an innocent moral mishap, should be overlooked and forgotten—a conscious and willing one that keeps coming back and repeating itself in intervals, must certainly be taken by a perceptive mind and tuned conscience as an indication of a serious crack in one’s human character and the molding agents which bind his or her senses and powers; a defection which if not remedied and fixed with discipline and care, precarious and damaging it shall grow and shall eventually crush away the good and the noble in the temple of one’s being, however gently and silently that it might snick in, blinding even oneself of seeing how far down he and she has alas fallen.
Considering a right way to convey a truth, appropriately choosing a best time and circumstance to do so, and then matching with spotless sincerity and prudent care those considerations to the condition, capacity and state of the hearer and receiver of the truth, one should utter it with eloquence and compassion, or in writing with the proper movement of one’s pen and the spirit of loving goodness. The presence and the balance of these essential considerations are the elements of wisdom. To be aware and mindful of the rightness of our purpose and always thinking before we speak, being sincerely motivated and sensitively conscious of the rights and dignity, the innate value and potential nobility of every human being—our hearer and ourselves included both of course—is that brilliant finesse which is a magic blend of wisdom and compassion; it is clothing the genuine and unaltered beauty of truth in the garment of propriety and courtesy, kindliness and brevity—through words, and as applicable and fitting better even in action and in deeds.
“Adorn your heads with the garlands of trustworthiness and fidelity, your hearts with the attire of the fear of God, your tongues with absolute truthfulness, your bodies with the vesture of courtesy. These are in truth seemly adornings unto the temple of man, if ye be of them that reflect.”
(Revealed by Baha’u’llah, “Kitab-i-Aqdas”, p. 62)
“Observe courtesy, for above all else it is the prince of virtues. Well is it with him who is illumined with the light of courtesy and is attired with the vesture of uprightness. Whoso is endued with courtesy hath indeed attained a sublime station.” (Revealed by Baha’u’llah, “Tablets of Baha’u’llah”, p. 88)
You are welcome to visit the recent posts on my two other blogs—English and bilingual—below:
Inked ThinkPenhttp://inkedthinkpen.blogspot.ca/
Timeless Treasures: Words with Meanings
http://timelesstreasureswordswithmeanings.blogspot.ca/
Timeless Treasures: Words with Meanings
http://timelesstreasureswordswithmeanings.blogspot.ca/
