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I can't recall where, but I remember reading somewhere that swearing (ie, cussing, etc) causes bad karma. I believe it and stopped swearing(except when singing songs, because I don't believe in censorship). I've found that I actually feel much better about myself since I've stopped swearing, and I've also noticed recently that I'm a lot more patient than anyone else I know, but I'm not sure if that's because of this or of my trying to better myself through Buddha, even if I don't know how to meditate. I'm wondering what other people think! Also, I'll add a small poll for people who'd like some extra gold.



One more thing I've noticed: cussing is actually habit that can be difficult to break, especially if you're like I was, who made sailors look like Mormon priests.

i swear like a foo. when you said that you used to swear so much it made sailors look like mormons Im right there with ya. lol

How i see it is, its a violation of right speech, because as buddhists we are working for the benefit of all living beings. And swearing generates false impressions of ourselves in others, it might even upset and offend other people. It puts them in a bad mood, it distracts them from their own mindfulness, from their own happiness.

not to mention with poor and false impressions in other people we get a bad reputation, and that reputation holds us back from gaining a closer more helpful relationship with other people. We cannot be the role model we are supposed to be as buddhists if no one wants to listen to the 'mindless, bad mouthed, bad kid'. Trust me; working to overcome a bad reputation is almost twice as hard as quitting an addiction to bad words.

poor language has a stigma of coming from a bad mind. it portrays a bad mind every time you swear, and it hurts a lot of people around you if they are not as easy going as, perhaps, you are.

i think, like everything else, if you do choose to swear, that you are mindful of who is going to hear it. That is if you even choose to swear at all.

You know, I find that to be true in so many ways. I do admit that i say the word "crap" a lot, but I don't see that as swearing ( I've even heard it on Cartoon Network). I think I should probably try to cut back on saying that as well, if only to improve myself and my vocabulary (or barring that, self-control from keeping silent and saying nothing) slightly. The only times I truly swear is when singing, because I don't believe in censoring song or other works of art.

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I curse rather a lot but I would never use them directed at a person(s) or ideas. Like, "that is so ____ cool!" Or "s**t like that". I use them in a sort of strong adjective. But if I know I'm around a person who find such words offensive just to otter, or when I'm around kids, I don't use the words because THEN it would be bad/hurtful. It all depends, I suppose, who you're talking to.

A person can very well hurt another's feelings WITHOUT the use of cursing. I can call a person "an idiotic waste of space with the only ability to function as a door stop" and it's far more hurtful then if I was to say something like "you're ******** stupid". (even if it doesn't make the person feel bad it does make you look stupid yourself, though.)

How ever I have gotten into a very bad habit of saying "Oh, my lord." At first it was my way to getting out of saying God, seeing as, well, it's not my god, but saying Lord Buddha in vain is kinda worst too.
XD

It's the meaning behind the words, not the words themselves. I swear kind of often and a heck of a lot more when I'm mad, but as long as I don't mean the things behind what I say then it's fine. (Like when I say "Why the ******** would you do that?!" I mean it like someone who would say heck, it's put in there to show meaning/anger.)

Personally I'm not usually offended unless a person swears excessively... also certain words bother me more than others. Context is also important.

When it comes to cursing, I try to hold back as much as I possibly can. I don't swear much just because for some reason, I always feel like it brings me down emotionally. I don't know why that is - most of my family members swear quite a lot and I'm used to hearing some pretty colorful (and surprisingly creative) strains of profanity. Sometimes I actually kind of wish I was able to do that myself, lol.

In my experience I have never really come acrossed a 'bad word'. Except something that was originally used to slander someone. All of the supposed swear words along some point in time weren't originally thought of as swear words but as 'peasant talk'. For instance the word 's**t' meant or course dung, poop, crap, feces. The word s**t was a term that sheep farmers would use to refer to their animal's fecal matter. The higher ups in soceity considered most anything said by anyone lower than them to be 'slanderous' or 'uncivilized'. This is where I understand the censoring of certain words came from. No body wanted to sound like a poor, dirty ol' farmer. I grew up as a poor, dirty farmer and so I will say s**t when I mean to say s**t because that is exactly what it means. This can be applied to all other 'swear' words in the history of the world. Only when it is used for a truly cruel or disrespectful purpose should a person be hushed.