Mindfulness is what we need to stop the little things from slipping out without thinking, we just need more mindfulness. We have to remind ourselves when we have had words slip out too easily before. Australians have a little saying regarding the foot and mouth disease, that often affects cattle and other animals. In Australia we have the expression "foot in mouth" disease. OK? More mindfulness, more mindfulness, we simply need more mindfulness. And we need to be slower.
Now the practice of slowing down, that's very helpful within the training, that's a valuable thing to use with your speech, to slow down, to slow it down. Then you don't just say things automatically, you don't put your foot in your mouth, you don't have things just slip out. Now, on occasion, things that are very true slip out, but it's not appropriate, it's not beneficial, it's not endearing to the other person's ears. Yet it might be correct and true, it might be truthful, fine and dandy, but it's the wrong time, or it's the wrong person to say that to. So again we need more mindfulness as to knowing when something is appropriate to say. If you remember a few days ago when I talked about the Prince Abhaya Sutta and Buddha saying that even when he knows it's appropriate, even when he knows it's correct and true, he also knows the proper time for saying it. Now that is great, he had all the wisdom but we don't. So sometimes we are going to make mistakes, try to learn from it and not do it again in the future.
Now often, it is better not to say things, than to say something truthfully, because it won't be the right time. And this is what the Buddha is giving us the advice for, that even for him there are times when he would not say anything. So on occasion it's helpful for us to know that it's better not to say the truth, (and also not to say an untruth) if it's just going to create more of a bigger problem, nothing can be fixed by it. So it takes more understanding, more mindfulness, more wisdom.