No one gossips
about other people’s secret virtues.
A large chunk of leisure time is spent unproductively by majority of us in gossip. If two people meet, they talk less of themselves and more of the world.
If you involve more in gossip, you will be in utter chaos. Indulging in such unproductive and futile talk not only seep your energies but also negativity corrodes your system. Instead, you could use those energies for self-reflection so that you can tread a path of success.
Socrates gives a Triple Filter Test to overcome this problem:
One day an acquaintance met Socrates and said, “Do you know what I just heard about your friend?"
Hold a minute, Socrates replied. “Before telling me anything, I’d like you to pass a little test. It is called the Triple Filter Test.
Triple filter?
That is right, “Socrates continued. "Before you talk to me about my friend, it might be good idea to take a moment and filter what you are going to say. That’s why I call it the triple filter test. "
The first filter is TRUTH. Have you made absolutely sure that what you are about to tell me is true?
"No," the man said, “actually I just heard about it and ...."
All right, “said Socrates.” So you don't really know if it is true or not. Now let's try the second filter, the filter of GOODNESS. Is what you are about to tell me about my friend something good?
"No, on the contrary...”
"So, Socrates continued,” you want to tell me something bad about him, but you are not certain it's true. You may still pass the test though, because there’s one filter left: the filter of USEFULNESS.
Is what you want to tell me about my friend going to be useful to me? "
"No, not really. "
"Well, concluded Socrates, “if what you want to tell me is neither true nor good nor even useful, why tell it to me at all?
If everybody prevails on the wisdom of Socrates, we could channelize such unproductive energies for more creative pursuits.
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