Speaking the truth is one of the spiritual values that is traditional. I think perhaps that it's repeated so often in Buddhist and other religious literature, because it is such a very hard thing to practice.

The central question is: is it always kindness to speak the truth? And if it's not - how does one know when to speak the truth, and when to lie kindly?

I've written several blogposts about this question.

The first one asks the question: would it be fair to claim to be a medium if you're not? Perhaps the answer is obvious: no of course not. But I found it is not as easy as it sounds: some might be tempted to imagine themselves being mediums, just because it brings a livelihood.

Truth and lies - right and wrong? - is a more recent blogpost of mine. The main question is: when a person can't understand the truth, what does it mean to lie?

In the comments I was still accused of telling people it's alright to lie - so I wrote: Honesty is the best policy… except… Perhaps I should not be so easy to provoke into blogging :) I mean really, sometimes our opinions are just not important enough to mention. Does that count as being diplomatic, or as being dishonest?