Cultivating the art of listening deeply with compassion is one aspect of the practice. The other aspect is learning how to speak with loving kindness. You can tell him, you can tell her of your suffering, of your pain. And if you consider him or her to be the person you love the most in the world, you have to tell him, you have to tell her your suffering—but with one condition: that you use only loving speech. Because only that kind of speech can allow him or her to listen. And again, we have to train ourselves.

In the beginning, we are determined to speak with tenderness, using loving speech. But as you continue, the seeds of suffering in us are touched. And our tone will have the vibration of our suffering. And very soon, people can notice the bitterness, the irritation in our speech. And that is why, even with the best intention, we have to practice so that we can remain calm during the time of speaking. And the moment when we notice that we are no longer calm anymore, we should not continue the speaking. We will say, "Darling, may I stop here? And I will tell you later. I need to go for walking meditation and take care of our emotions."

When you have the chance to attend a retreat, to have the chance to go to a practice center and spend a few weeks there, it is your occasion to cultivate the art of deep listening, the art of mindful and loving speech. Because these two practices will be very crucial in solving the problem, in restoring peace and harmony within your environment. We have to practice in such a way that we could restore some of our solidity, our freedom. And the base of all these things is mindfulness. I would go back to this deep listening, compassionate listening and loving speech a little bit later. And I would like to proceed with the energy of mindfulness.