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Speech Compilation (view source)

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The speech must come from within and be controlled from within.

<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/speech-and-yoga#p29</ref>

There are also all the words that are uttered to express ideas, opinions, the results of reflection or study. Here we are in an intellectual domain and we might think that in this domain men are more reasonable, more self-controlled, and that the practice of rigorous austerity is less indispensable. It is nothing of the kind, however, for even here, into this abode of ideas and knowledge, man has brought the violence of his convictions, the intolerance of his sectarianism, the passion of his preferences. Thus, here too, one must resort to mental austerity and carefully avoid any exchange of ideas that leads to controversies which are all too often bitter and nearly always unnecessary, or any clash of opinion which ends in heated discussions and even quarrels,which are always the result of some mental narrowness that can easily be cured when one rises high enough in the mental domain. <ref>https://incarnateword.in/cwm/12/the-four-austerities-and-the-four-liberations#p51</ref>

==Why to Speak: Speech as a Basis of Truth==

It [truthfulness] means first truth-speaking, but beyond that to keep the speech in harmony with the deepest truth of which one is conscious. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/speech-and-yoga#p50</ref>

Frankness says candidly what it has to say without caring for the result. <ref>https://incarnateword.in/cwm/14/control-of-speech#p26</ref>

...complete truth of speech is very important for the sadhak and a great help for bringing Truth into the consciousness. It is at the same time difficult to bring the speech under control; for people are accustomed to speak what comes to them and not to supervise and control what they say. There is something mechanical about speech and to bring it to the level of the highest part of the consciousness is never easy. That is one reason why to be sparing in speech is helpful. It helps to a more deliberate control and prevents the tongue from running away with one and doing whatever it likes.

To stand back means to become a witness of one’s own mind and speech, to see them as something separate from oneself and not identify oneself with them. Watching them as a witness, separate from them, one gets to know what they are, how they act and then put a control over them, reject what one does not approve and think and speak only what one feels to be true. This cannot, of course, be done all at once. It takes time to establish this attitude of separateness, still more time to establish the control. But it can be done by practice and persistence. <ref>https://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/speech-and-yoga#p33,p34</ref>

… if you want your speech to express the truth and thus acquire the power of the Word, never think out beforehand what you want to say, do not decide what is a good or bad thing to say, do not calculate the effect of what you are going to say. Be silent in mind and remain unwavering in the true attitude of constant aspiration towards the All-Wisdom, the All-Knowledge, the All-Consciousness. Then, if your aspiration is sincere, if it is not a veil for your ambition to do well and to succeed, if it is pure, spontaneous and integral, you will then be able to speak very simply, to say the words that ought to be said, neither more nor less, and they will have a creative power.

<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/12/the-four-austerities-and-the-four-liberations#p63</ref>

==Process Of Cultivating Control In Speech==

The first condition of inner progress is to recognise whatever is or has been a wrong movement in any part of the nature,—wrong idea, wrong feeling, wrong speech, wrong action,—and by wrong is meant what departs from the Truth, from the higher consciousness and higher self, from the way of the Divine. Once recognised it is admitted,—not glossed over or defended,—and it is offered to the Divine for the Light and Grace to descend and substitute for it the right movement of the true consciousness.

<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/29/equality-the-chief-support#p8</ref>

When the source of inspiration is in the heart or the psychic there is more easily a good will in the vital channel, the flow is spontaneous; the inspiration takes at once its true form and speech and is transmitted without any interference or only a minimum of interference by the brain-mind, that great spoiler of the higher or deeper splendours. <ref>https://incarnateword.in/cwsa/27/three-elements-of-poetic-creation#p2</ref>

==Vigilance in Speech==

If you can succeed in controlling the speech often,—it needs a constant vigilance,—you will finally find that the control extends itself and can in the long run always intervene.

<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/speech-and-yoga#p36</ref>

Control over what one says is more important than complete silence. The best is to learn to say what is useful in the most exact and true way possible. <ref>https://incarnateword.in/cwm/14/control-of-speech</ref>

It is obvious that things which are a long habit cannot go at once. Especially the speech is a thing which in most people is largely automatic and not under their control. It is the vigilance that establishes the control, so one must be on guard against the danger of which you speak, the slacking of the vigilance. Only the more it can be a quiet and unmixed, not an anxious vigilance, the better. <ref>https://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/speech-and-yoga#p35</ref>

==Observing and Stepping Back==

It [''speech''] can only be controlled if you separate yourself from the part that is speaking and are able to observe it. It is the external mind that speaks—one has to watch it from the inner witnessing mind and put a control. <ref>https://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/speech-and-yoga#p32</ref>

These things, hard forms of speech, anger etc., are habits formed by the vital-physical consciousness and, as they are supported by the subconscient, very difficult to change. If one can conquer or change them by force of will or mental or spiritual control, so much the better. But if one cannot do this at once, one must not be upset or think oneself unfit. It is easier for most to realise the Divine or enter into the psychic consciousness than to change this part of the nature; but once the psychic consciousness governs or the higher consciousness descends then it is much easier for these to go. You must not therefore be discouraged by these recurrences or persistences, but try always to stand back in an inner quietude and if they come let them pass away like a cloud across the light. In time these things will be finally dealt with by the Force. <ref>https://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/anger-and-violence#p3</ref>

==Helpful Practices==

The psychic self-control that is desirable…

(6) To avoid all that would hurt or wound others.

<ref>https://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/speech-and-yoga#p37,p38,p39,p40,p41,p42,p43</ref>

Useless conversation which lowers the consciousness or brings back something of a past consciousness is better avoided. Talking about sadhana also comes under the category when it is merely mental discussion of a superficial kind. <ref>https://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/speech-and-yoga#p19</ref>

When speaking of physical things one should have a lively, pleasant, witty style.

When speaking of psychic things one must be inspired. <ref>https://incarnateword.in/cwm/14/control-of-speech#p20,p21,p22,p23</ref>

==Silence as an Anchor of Speech==

If one keeps the inner silence even when among the friends, that is the real thing; the outer silence need only be relative until the time comes when speech itself is an expression out of the silence. <ref>https://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/speech-and-yoga#p77</ref>

There should be no useless talking or mere chat, still less anything untrue or prompted by egoism and desire. One can talk, but with silence within and quietude in the speech.

<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/speech-and-yoga#p18</ref>

In talking one has the tendency to come down into a lower and more external consciousness because talking comes from the external mind. But it is impossible to avoid it altogether. What you must do is to learn to get back at once to the inner consciousness—this so long as you are not able to speak always from the inner being or at least with the inner being supporting the action. <ref>https://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/speech-and-yoga#p3</ref>

===Dealing with Impulsive Speech===

To control speech is to stand back from the speech impulse and observe it, not to say whatever the impulse makes you say but only to speak what one really needs to say or chooses to say, not to speak in haste or anger or impatience or lightly, not to talk at random or say what is harmful. It does not necessarily mean to speak very little, though that is often helpful. <ref>https://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/speech-and-yoga#p31</ref>

In fact, one should always do this, when he feels that he is caught by an impulse of some kind or other, particularly impulses of anger. If one takes as an absolute discipline, instead of acting or speaking (because speech is an action), instead of acting under the impulse, if one withdraws and then does as I said, one sits down quietly, concentrates and then looks at his anger quietly, one writes it down, when one has finished writing, it is gone—in any case, most often. <ref>https://incarnateword.in/cwm/07/30-march-1955#p39</ref>

The habit of criticism—mostly ignorant criticism of others—mixed with all sorts of imaginations, inferences, exaggerations, false interpretations, even gross inventions is one of the universal illnesses of the Asram. It is a disease of the vital aided by the physical mind which makes itself an instrument of the pleasure taken in this barren and harmful pursuit of the vital. Control of the speech, refusal of this disease and the itch of the vital is very necessary if inner experience has to have any true effect of transformation in the outer life.

I suggest that every one of you should try—oh! not for long, just for one hour a day—to say nothing but the absolutely indispensable words. Not one more, not one less.

Take one hour of your life, the one which is most convenient for you, and during that time observe yourself closely and say only the absolutely indispensable words.

At the outset, the first difficulty will be to know what is absolutely indispensable and what is not. It is already a study in itself and every day you will do better.

Next, you will see that so long as one says nothing, it is not difficult to remain absolutely silent, but as soon as you begin to speak, always or almost always you say two or three or ten or twenty useless words which it was not at all necessary to say. <ref>https://incarnateword.in/cwm/03/anger#p14,p15,p16,p17</ref>

It is only by perseverance and vigilance and a strong resolution that this [control of the impulse to speech]can be done, but if the resolution is there, it can be done in a short time by the aid of the Force behind. <ref>https://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/speech-and-yoga#p48</ref>

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