The following talk was given at the Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City, California.

Please visit our website at audioderma.org. So there is a very wise and important slogan for living a good life and this slogan is valuable

to just keep kind of in your back pocket or in your front shirt pocket or something. Just keep it close by.

And maybe memorize it so that it's handy. And the slogan is, it's only four words, don't make it

worse. You might not know what to do, you might understand, you know,

what to make things better, but at least don't make it worse.

So, we make it worse by acting with our anger, with our words speaking him.

It's usually with our words speaking him.

It's usually nothing good comes from that.

We make it worse if we act on our greed and our addictions.

Usually nothing good comes from that.

We make it worse if we act when we're totally confused or frazzled or don't know what up and down.

It might be a time when it's better just to be quiet. If what you have to say is not going to make the situation

better, maybe you should consider not saying it.

You might feel a compulsion to speak,

but do I really need to say this?

I know it's gonna make the situation worse.

And one of the one of the kind of fundamental aspects of Buddhism

that's often not emphasized in the Western Buddhist circles is to use the mindfulness capacity to

restrain ourselves. Restraint is not a very popular idea. But if we understand

that restraint means just don't make it worse.

Have the inner fortitude, find the inner strength,

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