Mindset story: What if you would have to watch what you say

One day at lunch with his best friend, Dave started a conversation, “Imagine a day when no one would complain to you about their troubles, or a day when you wouldn’t have to listen to people go on and on about their opinion about anything and everything even though you haven’t asked them… Wouldn’t that be wonderful? Imagine how peaceful it would be.” His friend looked at hit seriously and sad, “Dave if you really mean it, then I may know of such a place. I heard of a monastery that has very strict rules if you want to live there. One of them is that the monks there have to take a vow of silence, and they are allowed to speak only two words per year. Only senior monks are allowed to say more than two words. So if you would go to such a place you would have to watch what you say as everyone else would.”

Later that day Dave started to research if such a place really does exist. To his amazement, he found the monastery his friend was talking about. So Dave quit his job, said goodbye to his friends, and went to live in the monastery as a monk. When he first arrived at the monastery the first thing he noticed was how quiet it was. And even though the monks weren’t speaking they somehow found a way to effectively work together. One of the head monks who initiated Dave into the order explained the rules to him, and from the moment Dave accepted his…