It often comes up: What about writing an email? Is that an act of body or speech? It is your body that is typing but it is considered speech because it is communication. There is a lot of harsh speech coming out through emails. It gives you some distance between you and the other person. You can just type it out, spell out all your rubbish, click “send”, and you do not have to be there when they read it. You can either read their response or just delete it because you do not care. Email gives you more freedom to say harsher, meaner and crueller things. It is something very much to be attentive to.

Sometimes when you get a certain email, you feel inspired to write back with some harsh speech. This inspiration comes up when we know exactly what we are going to say as soon as possible. If only we had so much inspiration for our Dharma practice as we do for writing harsh speeches! So, you sit down and you write it, you click “send”, and then you go… “Did I really write that? Ugh.” You realise the other person is not going to be happy; he is going to write something back, and you are going to have a bigger problem on your hands than you had before. What I have learnt is to try not to respond to those kinds of emails. Do not send those emails right away, because it can be quite hurtful to other people. Let them sit for a day, or at least a few hours. If I do respond, I put them in the “draft” box instead of clicking “send”. I inevitably come back when my mind is calmer and rewrite it or delete it and start over again. It is a good thing to do.

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