By Hu Wo (Cuckoo’s Song)

ALMOST everyone tends to talk day by day, except speech-impaired people. Such talks will be a good or bad deed depending on the speaker. After all, talking is not a good thing that can be done at any time. To my certain knowledge, the tongue is but three inches long, yet it can kill a man six feet high, as a Japanese proverb states. Thus, for one’s food may be another’s poison, we had better watch our mouths whenev­er we talk to our family members, relatives, friends, acquaintances or even strangers. No matter when it takes place, there are several kinds of words that we should avoid while talking as much as possible. They are nothing but religious words, political words, harsh words and words of no use.

It is reasonable to assume that people have been acting in worship since human existence in the world. But apparently, they worship for many logical reasons. Primates are supposed to wor­ship fire, water and air as gods and goddesses for pure fear lest they worry about their life and property. In this way, it comes as no surprise to learn that we hu­mans have had diverse derived beliefs in our respective religions. However, alongside that context, traditional beliefs, superstitions and even extreme views as re­gards religions are still flourish­ing among worshippers. In fact, whatever religion we embrace, we must practise intrapersonal stability within ourselves from this religion critically and rationally at first, then global peace to the greatest degree, not arguments and attacks between religions. If not so, ancestor worship will be in vain for certain. When we need to have a serious talk about religious matters unflinchingly, we must first have studied enough religious teachings of ours as well as others’ religious practices. Despite this, it would be best if we do not hold re­ligious talks with any person most of the time at all.

As far as I can see, a nation’s politics is often founded on its eth­nicity and geographical features. Different ethnic groups are living here and there all over the world, we know well. Since diverse races have diverse ideas and opinions on their national identity, political policies adopted in world nations will surely not be the same as one another if we think about it candidly. Additionally, we cannot easily decide which country will certainly develop more than ever before if it relies upon what polit­ical policy, just from the point of view of our national state. Even in the same country, nationali­ties’ improvement is quite dif­ferent to each other very often.

Why ever are these situations still so? I am strongly of the opin­ion that only a person who knows politics inside out, particularly political science, political geogra­phy, political economy, background history, geopolitics or international relations, will be able to criticize the existing situation of a nation in the globe, looked at objectively rather than subjectively, includ­ing in the eyes of the law and the world. Hence, political talks are no easy task, actually. Then, it would be better if we do not say anything, even about domestic politics, to say nothing of foreign affairs, espe­cially when we have hero worship or political bias together with an uncontrolled national spirit and a strong preference for national interests.

I believe that we should nev­er say harsh words, even about ourselves in any time and in any circumstance except in some cas­es. Of course, harsh words may not be tolerated in every society of the world as they are an offensive manner or aggressive behaviour in many social dealings. In most cases, harsh words can be faux pas or social blunders that must be averted by anyone, mainly be­tween love-hate relationships or extremely fragile relationships. It is little wonder that such harsh words are nothing to those social­ly-behaved people who have a wide spectrum of friends and acquaint­ances around them, especially ex­troverts from the psychological point of view. But unexpectedly, the only word, a harsh word in particular, is most likely to break any long-lasting relationship very quickly. Even though our harsh words are dead sure, bloody well true or just for fun conditionally, we will have to watch our tongue when saying those words. There might be a few conditions that require harsh words, probably spoken by ourselves, namely insults, curs­es or foul language. Despite this, at least we had better say harsh words euphemistically, seeing that these words can turn out to be the worst `word debt´ in the future, which will then be too hard to stay out of all the debt.

Once, Buddha preached a sermon, there are only two kinds of words that should be said by everybody. The words must be of truth, use and others’ likes or of truth, use, but others’ dislikes. As a matter of fact, the former can be said at any time and in any space, whereas the latter should be done according to the time and circumstances of a situation. But, certainly, any words of no use need not be used anytime or any­where. Some people habitually talk through their hats in the presence of others, but to no effect. At that time, their words are usually no use to others simply because they take the biscuits, involving trivial matters, black lies, dirty jokes, brainwashing, psywars and false hopes. Really, we had best not keep up a desultory conversation even if it is mere humour or virtual reality now that this wastes too much time and energy imperceptibly and automatically.

Therefore, some people like to change the subject to religious and political affairs every time they meet their close friends for the simple reason that talking about these affairs may serve as a `hate bridge´ between their reg­ular relationships and even cause death sometimes, to say the least. On the other hand, harsh words and words of no use cause no hard feelings between companions, al­ways assuming that they come from the same parents, as usual. Perhaps this will not go well in other situations, I suppose. Truly, the benefits of clamming up with­out saying words that should be swallowed are many. First of all, it can save our precious time and non-renewable energy to some extent. And we will not need to resolve the potential implications of such words. As the sayings go, walls have ears and silence is golden. Above all, leaning against a wall of silence on occasions, chiefly when we are not in a posi­tion of authority or in a favourable condition, is the best lifestyle of a person, largely because after having said unnecessary words, we cannot have a dog’s chance of leading the rest of our lives. Altogether, our sometimes swal­lowed words are as important as a matter of life and death.