Most people love to talk. And their favorite subject tends to be,
themselves. I am guilty of this, truly! There is nothing wrong with this, except when
it gets in the way of the Practice. “If
you can’t control your mouth, how will you control your mind?” It is after all the fourth precept.
Yet, in today’s digital age of social networks,
and blogs (like this) talking is not only done with the mouth. It is done with a keyboard as well. And even if we convince ourselves we are talking
about enlightening things, or nirvana itself.
How much talk about practicing does it take to practice? Better yet, how much talk of practicing can
you do before it distracts you from Practicing?
I will be the first to admit that I have a problem
with idle chatter, among other things. I
can tell when I’ve been using FB too much because my meditations become
littered with anxious thinking and restlessness. That’s if they allow me to show any interest
in my meditation at all! Although, the
thoughts maybe about useful things, they are not serving me to achieve the goal
of why I am sitting, besides, if they are really that important. They will be their when I’m done.
The Buddha divided actions into two types: those
imbued with renunciation and skillfulness, and those imbued with greed and aversion. This is hard to see in the way we use speech
with others. But it is even harder and
more subtle to see with the way we use speech on ourselves. In fact it will be impossible for anyone to
attain a noble state of concentration without talking to themselves
skillfully. But before you delete your
FB or Blog, remember, that you can come into your body, and breath. What is the mind like? How does the breath feel? Are your verbal actions imbued with
love? We need to learn how to talk
skillfully. But in order to do that we
must be willing to make some mistakes.
How else will we learn?
Recommended read: http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/an/an10/an10.069.than.html
ReplyDelete"If you were to engage repeatedly in these ten topics of conversation, you would outshine even the sun & moon, so mighty, so powerful — to say nothing of the wanderers of other sects."
Just sticking to these ten topics might not always be easy (it also depends a lot on the company)
Personally, I see much benefit on talking about (and thus also reflecting on) the practice. At the apropriate time that is. Just having some silent hours (far from social media and people) can have a wonderful calming effect on the mind.
Michael,
DeleteYou raise a good argument with a Sutta to back it up. I respect that and you. But we must all find the way to make the practice suit where we are, which will be different for each of us. Only the heart knows why we wish to speak, and that is for each of us to contemplate on our own, to see whether or not it really does serve our goals. I enjoy relaxing and calming quiet time as well. But that is not why I meditate. I am training my mind to have new habits and inclinations. There is work to be done during meditation if we expect to make use of what little time we have left with the Dhamma to achieve release. Yet, still what the work is and means will be different for each of us. Thank you for your response friend. I hope we all find peace.