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7. Purity in Speech
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subdue themselves; they shake off [the effect of their] former evil deeds and abstain from working new ones. 69. Calm in themselves, free from egotism, without property, endowed, thanks to their own knowledge, with knowledge, of best reputation, the abandoners will go to perfection or to the heavenly regions, bright like the bright moon in the clearness of autumn.
7. Purity in Speech. 1. Of the four kinds of speech, the thoughtful [monk] should, after consideration, learn the training in two, [but] should not use the other two ones at any occasion. 2. That [form of speech] which is true, [but] not to be uttered, that which is half-true, that which is [quite] untrue and which is not practised by the Jinas, the thoughtful [monk] should not use. 3. [But] he should, after deliberation, use a speech not exposed to doubt, [a speech] which is neither true nor untrue and [a speech) which is true, provided that it is not to be blamed [and] rough. 4. But this or that topic which confines the Eternal within limits - this half-true speech the wise [monk] should avoid. 5. By a speech which is untrue, though its appearance is that of a true one, a man is touched by sin, how much more a man who speaks plain untruth! 6. Such speech therefore, as e g. "we [shall] go", "we shall say”, "we shall have to do that”, or: "I shall do that", or "he shall do that”, 7. uncertain in the future or with regard to a matter of the present [or] of the past, a wise [monk] should avoid. 8. 9. If [a monk] does not know, [or] has some doubt about, a matter which concerns past, present, and future, he should not say: "it is thus"; 10. (this he should do only) when there is no room for doubt.
11. Furthermore: rough speech which might hurt respectable persons, how ever true it may be, must not be said, because evil will result from it. 12. Therefore a monk should not call a one-eyed man, a castrate, a sick person, a thief, (by these names). 13. Because the person concerned would be hurt by this or a similar statement, a thoughtful [monk] should not utter such speech, when he knows [that] faults of conduct
