Pure & Goodly Deeds

SOUL CAFÉ

Pure & Goodly Deeds

The betterment of the world can be accomplished through pure and goodly deeds, through commendable and seemly conduct.

-Baha'u'llah

Let your eye be chaste, your hand faithful, your tongue truthful and your heart enlightened.

 -Baha'u'llah

Say: O brethren! Let deeds, not words, be your adorning.

  -Baha'u'llah

Holy words and pure and goodly deeds ascend unto the heaven of celestial glory.

Beautify your tongues, O people, with truthfulness, and adorn your souls with the ornament of honesty.

A kindly tongue is the lodestone of the hearts of men. It is the bread of the spirit, it clotheth the words with meaning, it is the fountain of the light of wisdom and understanding...

Do not be content with showing friendship in words alone, let your heart burn with loving-kindness for all who may cross your path.

When a thought of war comes, oppose it by a stronger thought of peace. A thought of hatred must be destroyed by a more powerful thought of love.

...backbiting quencheth the light of the heart, and extinguisheth the life of the soul.

Breathe not the sins of others so long as thou art thyself a sinner.

Speak no evil, that thou mayest not hear it spoken unto thee, and magnify not the faults of others that thine own faults may not appear great...

 -Baha'u'llah

You talk when you cease to be at peace with your thoughts;

And when you can no longer dwell in the solitude of your heart you live in your lips, and sound is a diversion and a pastime.

And in much of your talking, thinking is half murdered.

For thought is a bird of space, that in a cage of words many indeed unfold its wings but cannot fly.

There are those among you who seek the talkative through fear of being alone.

The silence of aloneness reveals to their eyes their naked selves and they would escape.

And there are those who talk, and without knowledge or forethought reveal a truth which they themselves do not understand.

And there are those who have the truth within them, but they tell it not in words.

In the bosom of such as these the spirit dwells in rhythmic silence.

When you meet your friend on the roadside or in the market place, let the spirit in you move your lips and direct your tongue.

Let the voice within your voice speak to the ear of his ear;

For his soul will keep the truth of your heart as the taste of the wine is remembered

When the color is forgotten and the vessel is no more.

 - K. Gibran