Speaking without effort

Filed under Notes on 22. July 2007 »

For a long time I’ve been attracted to the idea of not speaking, of simply giving up talking completely. Becoming mute. In this way, I imagine that it would be easier to stay centered and at peace, and to not get sucked into the conditioned ways of perception and behavior that seem to be kept going in such a large part by incessant talking. The conditioning perpetuates itself in the mind through compulsive thinking, mostly repetitive and unnecessary but absolutely vital for the ego to maintain its momentum. This compulsive thinking can manifest outwardly in constant talking and chatter, which means that people will try to keep the dialogue going either by talking to themselves in the head or by talking to someone else, regardless of whether or not anything needs to be said.

Now, I’m not suggesting that everyone should start behaving like robots and talk to each other for utilitarian purposes only. Not at all. Most people enjoy talking, and there is nothing inherently wrong with it. What we are looking at here does not necessarily mean that we need to stop talking, but rather that we investigate where the words are coming from.

Ironically enough I’m having a hard time finding the words for this, but it has to do with the concept of non-doing and the difference between a thought that comes as a result of an act of thinking, and a thought that comes from somewhere else, often described as intuition. Another way of seeing it is to split the mind into higher mind and lower mind, the higher being the realm of inspiration, intuition and creativity, while the lower is home to conditioning, compulsive thinking and the ego.

As talking is little more than outwardly expressing verbalized thoughts, the same split of higher and lower mind applies. Sometimes you speak through the conditioned mind, and sometimes speaking simply happens without you having to make an effort. It is the same with thinking or taking action; there is a great difference between an action that happens intuitively and an action that arises from personal effort.

When I contemplate the possibility of ceasing to speak, what I really mean is to cease speaking from the level of conditioning. To let go of the act of speaking and simply allow words to come if and when they are needed. This means among other things that you no longer prepare what you are going to say, but rest assured that whatever comes spontaneously and from intuition is going to be far better and more appropriate than what you could ever muster with effort and preparation.

It is an approach that has much deeper implications and goes far beyond talking alone, but applying it in this one area of doing will have a direct effect on how you do everything else. The idea of non-action is, as I take it to be, to stop acting on behalf of the person and instead surrendering to the will of God or, if you don’t like that word, giving yourself up to the service of life itself.

Talking (and consequently thinking) is a great area to experiment with this idea of non-action, and the simple practice of not making an effort to talk can reap great benefits in other areas of your life as well.