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Is Chattering a good thing?
techie
India Veteran
In Buddhism, mindfulness is a very important concept. And while practicing mindfulness, people usually come across the problem of chattering - and they ask advice on how to stop it and so forth.
But is chattering really a bad thing?
Isn't it a form of catharsis? Doesn't it give some kind of relief?
Maybe it's the brain's inherent mechanism - when we've accumulated too much inside, we need to do something to throw it all out and be free. So perhaps our chattering or internal dialogue serves a purpose.
Is that possible?
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Our mind segregates thoughts the same way our stomach segregates gastric juices, @techie.
It's not bad, it's not good: just a fact of life.
But we are definitely under no obligation of buying into our every thought nor following after them, either.
My most useful insights come to me during my meditations, but since I like to keep my sitting as discursive-free as possible, I take mental note of some particular issue I have been pondering on to work on it after my session.
Yes
It just adds more noise to the world and makes it hard to discern what is important. And makes it easier to place importance on things that don't really have any (like celebrity news). It makes it easy for people to be distracted and harder for them to determine what is important to share with the world. Most of what is said, the world could do without. Including what I am saying now
Not every piece of diarrhea our mind spits out needs to be verbalized. What makes it cathartic? Verbalizing thoughts gives them a voice when most often they don't need one. One can learn to let go of those thoughts without doing anything else with them. There's nothing wrong with processing stuff and thinking through it. But determining what to share with others is another thing. A person can also write it down and choose not to share it if they need to get it out but don't know how to let it go otherwise. It is still a method of giving thoughts a voice, but if it's not shared with others at least it doesn't contribute to all the noise in the world already.
I crave depth to my conversations and I have no problems with silence. I don't need every clerk to ask me about the weather. Most chatter is a distraction from silence that we've been taught is uncomfortable.
-Agreed...
About not every clerk discussing the weather... I think small talk is an art, aimed at putting people at ease, and there isn't anything wrong with it, unlike real chatter or gossip.
Agreed @lobster . Its why I avoid the staffroom at breaktime in school.
If I am buying avocados, I don't really need to be put at ease, personally. Living in a small town, sometimes the amount of small talk is very disruptive to everyone else. On the one hand, it's nice to have so much community where neighbors all know each other. On the other hand, they stop traffic to chat with each other, they hold up the lines at the store for several minutes talking about so and so's most recent illness etc. Just smile and ring up my avocados that's all I need, lol. If they were genuinely asking how someone was, then maybe that would be one thing. But here at least it is not a case of an art taking place, it is a case of filling silence because they think silence is awkward.
I'm generally not in a hurry, so it doesn't bother me much - the actual holding up of lines etc. It's the bigger idea that so many people have no idea how what they are doing impacts other people. Nor do they seem to care. Like I said, it's just my own preference to keep my verbal engagement to a more meaningful level, so it feels incredibly fakey to me when everyone and their uncle wants to talk. If you don't actually care how I am, then don't ask. I can read people like books, and it's exhausting to do so. I'm learning better how to shut it out but most people are incredibly fakey and detached and it's bothersome to me. I can walk by a person and tell them how they are really feeling, so when they try to pretend they are feeling otherwise, it drives me crazy. I prefer people to be real. But I know most of the world doesn't work that way, so I live with it. To me, small talk IS chatter, because the entire purpose is to fill the silence. At least here.
Just for clarification. I meant inner chatter, not making small talk with other people.
If you mean monkey chatter ie, the racket ( non-stop chatter) that goes on inside ones head...Then I would say
Monkey chatter is neither good nor bad but "thinking" makes it so
A tamed monkey mind is a good friend, and can be quite helpful if you give it a task to do ie, put one's mind to it but a wild ie, the untamed monkey mind, will get one into all kinds of mischief....
"My mind was once full of noisy monkey who really liked to chat-
never stopping for a minute even when I sat…
One day a wise Lama who meditates did say-
'There is a trick that you could use to make them go away!'
Well I was all ears I wanted to know what was it I could do-
to be rid of those pesky monkey who had made my mind a zoo…
He said 'Just concentrate on your breathing that should do the trick-
paying more attention to the present moment will make them feel home sick.
They will slowly leave through your nose or mouth and dissolve into the air-
leaving a place of true contentment - a mind without a care.'
Well it did the trick, I concentrated on my breathing and my mind became quite free-
an inner peace now fills the space where monkey chatter used to be!
However, I do like all sentient beings, even monkeys who liked to chat-
but they can take their gossip elsewhere-for I’ve had enough of that !!!"
Hi @techie . You can check it yourself and know better - just try to chatter mindfully. I think there's a lot to learn in seeing what chattering is really like:)
"Go Placidly amidst the noise and haste
And remember what peace there may be in Silence...."
For myself, I find the more I let my inner chatter factory go, the more attached I get to thinking they are important thoughts. The more I can slow the factory down, the better the quality control. For me anyhow.
First you need to understand what is mind.
A mind is an accumulation of data that you have stored consciously or unconsciously. You like it or not all will be there. It's like a recycle bin. It is an important thing. Cuz if you don't have a in at home your home will become a garbage bag. You can never think anything new with your mind. All you do is take all the stored items from your mind. It's only good for survival.
What is survival
Survival mode is what most people are on. All you see around you is pure survival. For this mode the nature has provided you five sense organs. All your mind cares about is survival. You need to really understand this. You have to go beyond your five senses. Not enhance it now. It will happen soon as the result of mediation.
Mind chattering -
Why is mind constantly thinking. Have you wondered why. Ask yourself. Ask your mind.
If You try to shut it down. It's doesn't work that way. Your mind is capable of unbelievable hallucination things. It will take you to a point where Buddha himself will come to you and talk to you, walk with you. That's why you need to understand your mind.
Understanding the mind.
When we say mind. There is two different types of mind. One is your immediate mind which is your brain. And one is a mind body.
Mind body -
In Sanskrit we call it manas. It the information and memory stored in every single cell in your body. You may have forgotten how your fire fathers look like but their nose is sitting right on your face. The Manas is also responsible for auto heart pump reproduction of new cells and DNA. To get enlightened there is a work to delete all the strands that is attached to manas as well to a certain degree. Deleting the ancestral karma was a big time challenge for me.
so remember when the mind chatters. Just tell yourself. It's just being stupid. And let it play but don't give importance to the thought. Once you do. Boom you are lost. just keep reminding yourself that you are not the body and not the mind. And willing to know thyself. If you know any chant. Keep repeating the chanting. Like AUMMMMMMMM OR OMMM. AUM NAMAH SHIVAYA or AUM MANI PADME HUM. OR ALL THE ABOVE. Some deities mantras can help but let's not go there. At least for now.
Very insightful....Thank you.
(Feel free to write 'because'.... space is not at a premium here, and time is plentiful....
)
Thanks for an amazing post.
The problem for most of us is that we 'catch' ourselves chattering only AFTER it has happened. Which sort of makes it pointless, not to mention frustrating. Not having to chatter at all is very different from chattering first and then trying to control it after the fact.
Chattering happens. Until you attain samadhi. Even at samadhi. But samadhi has eight layers. For few layers yes chattering will continue until sahaja. For this I would suggest intense bakthi or devotion towards goutham the Buddha. Cuz he is one of the Buddha or a yogi who attained nirvikalpa. Meaning one who has no physical form but if wants anytime he may come in physical form if you need help.
It's the first stage where the devotion towards goutham the Buddha. Walk the buddhas path for a while doing service. It will and should take up somewhere for the time being. And during that period practise acceptance of all living entities. Accept everything that comes to you in your life as a physical form. Thoughts are also physical. Mostly based on past and future hardly into present state. Why I say accept is. When you practice a life of acceptance you slowly see life the way they are not how we want to see life. This is the base. You can call it heart chakra. Cuz you will feel the physical pleasant pressure in your heart near your chest and behind the chest. These mediation and freeing your mind happens as per your karmic substance you have accomodate during you many life times. To get rid of them completely is nirvana. We have to start somewhere. Remember the intensity showing how desperate you are. there are some secret yogic practises they do in India. Somehow I begged for it. And a yogi thought me. After I completed the Me and the pride that I had. Or even my identity just dissolved. So if I can do it. Anyone can do it. All the best. I'm there. We are there for you.
don't i know the inner chatter.it like a friendenemy. but breath and be has somewhat help.
question is samadhi concentration?trying to refamiliar certain words.
The user who posted about Samadhi isn't on the board anymore, but, I believe, was talking about the 8th Limb of Yoga, which is unity with the whole. Individual awareness disappears. It is basically the state of enlightenment, but isn't quite exactly the same as Buddhist enlightenment.
Shamatha = concentration via single-pointed meditation, usually. Like focus on the breath.
karasti,thank you.i think i kinda got a handle in what samadhi is and shamatha is.i think i have been there and done that about samadhi thing.the brain,in my particular case, when enter meditation and absorbtion,it may become a trance state where the mind loose sensehood of self.it may be percieve an enlightening experience,no doubt.but i remember what buddha said,paraphrasing,dont be drunk in jhana.but perhaps,if employing shamatha,a focus and direction,it gives the brain a sense of direction to peer through the absorbtion.kinda like a calm concentration so the brain wont be chemically high,but a balance .i think that's what the buddha is trying to get at ,like a cool relax head to see dharma,phenomenon and behavioral aspect.
this lead me to the thought of the subtle distinction of enlightenment and awaken in definition.i think the buddha employ both . he uses enlightenment as motivation,when he teaches dharma.the goal is to be awaken to dharma.his finely tune method,in the broad sense,virtue,meditation,and,wisdom.that's my theory,food for thought.