Speak Firmly

by Friends of Godwin

Sometimes I think you need to speak firmly to some people. Before I went to the meditation centre, I was a librarian. So I tried to practise loving-kindness with the members of the staff there. It was not easy. People would come late, thinking: He is practising loving-kindness, so we can get up an hour late. He is practising loving-kindness, so don’t send in an application for leave, just stay at home! I realised loving-kindness didn’t work because some people understood only a different language. The only thing to do is to be very clear, that now I am going to be firm, speak to them very firmly. In doing that there is no wound made, there is no defilement created inside, there is just saying something that has to be said.