Civilization is becoming (okay, has been, ever since the Industrial Revolution) very noisy. This is inimical to spiritual development. Even more so is all the talk, talk, talk. As Aldous Huxley pointed out in The Perennial Philosophy,"Unrestrained and indiscriminate talk is morally evil and spirtually dangerous." The Bible puts it even more strongly--"But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgement." (NOte:a ll following unattributed quotes are from the PP.)

Yet what do we do? Most of the words we utter, aloud or on-line, tend to be either 1) inspired by mean-spiritedness or outright malice (i.e., flames); words inspired by ego manifested as greed or self-love; and 3) words inspired by pure bone-headedness, mere sound and fury signifying nothing but a desire to distract and be distracted.

They greatly outnumber those words which come from a place of love, or dictated by reason or necessity. And if we include the endless internal monologues, the constant monkey-babbling of our tiny minds. . . . .

So, what is the problem? The problem is that because for many of us--and for our predecessors, the exponents of the Perennial Philosophy, the sages and Sufis and saints and shamans and weird holy dudes who down through the years have insisted that there is only one true end and purpose to life--attaining a unitive knowledge of the divine ground of being. Or in other words, becoming enlightened, attaining satori, or going to heaven (except that for some of us, this is a solely posthumous possibility).

All those idle words are vanities--"the silly no less that the self-regarding and the uncharitable" get in the way of this. They are "a dance of dust and flies obscuring the inward and outward Light."

I would suggest that we need to pay attention, to be vigilant in our language, and compassionate in our mode of expression. I think it behooves us to be mindful of the fact that we pay a high price for the dubious pleasures of contentious and sarcastic discourse.

Chuang Tau observed that, just as a dog is not considered a good dog because he is a good barker, so is a man not considered a man because he is a good talker.

Only in silence and stillness can we connect with the worlds within.

I often wish people would shut the fuck up. And I'm sick of living in a society that makes me feel like I have to talk, and that if I'm not talking then there must be something wrong with me.
Native Americans are often portrayed as being very quiet. I sometimes daydream about living amongst a tribe. They seem so peaceful, without all this constant chatter distracting everyone from "being". I like to think that talking is, or at least should be, a way of guiding us back to "being" when we lose our way a little.
It does have other positive uses tho.

Society is a noisy contraption.

It is so by design.

Arms, I respect your desire to live in one of the most remote locations in the U.S. and assume you went there for the peace and quiet. Yet, not only do you go a bit out of your way to communicate with the world at large, but you do so in an admistrative capacity; meaning you have to read more of the bullshit on here than we do.

It would seem that like most human beings, you have a desire to communicate with other human beings. It is a natural part of being a human, to want to be heard, to listen to others, to debate, make propostitions, toss an idea someones way and get some feedback, etc.

------------

I hate people in public talking on phones. I don't like large noisy crowds of people, and generally depise every single commercial I see on T.V. (fuck you ShamWow guy), and would love to choke the person who decided to make commercials a couple decibals higher than the show you were watching.

But, I realize that dumbfucks are going to blather on about who Angelina adopted, what celebrity put on a couple pounds, and what happened between Simon and Paula the other night.

Why? By design. Humans are social animals and will go out of there way to communicate whatever they feel is important, for whatever reason to other humans. Getting humans to listen, to just shut the fuck up and listen, has been the life long dream of every preacher, philosopher, and scientist since the first humans spoke.

Human nature is the most difficult enemy to fight, and shutting the world up, even for a moment, seems impossible. I do respect the dream, but I lack the hope needed to vocalize it.

Perhaps a bit of serenity on this one.

At the risk of sounding pretentious (not to say demented) as a semi-retired professional shaman and a double Libra, I am very comfortable with paradox, contradictions, and the reconciliation of opposites. I mean, good grief, I speak of love and peace and transcending fear and ego , but I sell weapons for a living and many of my customers are motivated by fear and/or ego. If more people were more highly spiritually evolved, I'd be out of business--I can sell only so many Boy Scout knives--the switchblades pay the bills. And giving the old sales pitch--again and again and AGAIN--does get tiresome, but I greatly enjoy--for a time--the heavy yang energy you get at gun shows.

Still, I do have days when I say nothing to anyone but my wife in our daily phone conversations, and I leave my phone turned off when I'm not using it. I could not stand to live in a big city--too much psychic and physical toxicity.

But "hope"? That word is not in my working vocabulary--hope is founded in despair, I think. I have no doubt, however, that as a species, we are evolving spiritually. I have no doubt that on an individual basis, spiritual growth is not only essential, but inevitable. I espouse these notions because of what I observe, not wishful thinking.

But "hope"? That word is not in my working vocabulary--hope is founded in despair, I think. I have no doubt, however, that as a species, we are evolving spiritually. I have no doubt that on an individual basis, spiritual growth is not only essential, but inevitable. I espouse these notions because of what I observe, not wishful thinking.

"Hope", W and I were discussing this today, and I thought of 1 Cor 13: "These three remain faith, hope and love, the greatest of these is love." 'Hope springs eternal', goes the old adage, but we agreed once true love is realised -- hope is superseded.

There's a joke: This straight woman goes to a pet shop and buys two female parrots only to find after she gets home they have a speech pattern that disturbs her. They keep repeating: "We're the happy hookers and we like to f*ck all day!". She's shocked and approachs her priest, he comes by and hearing the parrots say over and over, "We're the happy hookers and we like to f*ck all day!", he says he has a solution. He has two very devoted male parrots who pray constantly using their rosary beads and he believes they can convert the two miscreants.

Time passes and the priest returns with his birds. He and the straight put the birds together and the female parrots start crowing "We're the happy hookers and we like to f*ck all day!". The male birds stop, aghast, look at each other and the first to recover says:



"Put the beads away Frank, our prayers have been answered!":D


THE VISION OF ENOCH

THE MOST ANCIENT REVELATION

God Speaks to Man

I speak to you.
Be still
Know
I am
God.

I spoke to you
When you were born.
Be still
Know
I am
God.

I spoke to you
At your first sight.
Be still
Know
I am
God.

I spoke to you
At your first word.
Be still
Know
I am
God.

I spoke to you
At your first thought.
Be still
Know
I am
God.

I spoke to you
At your first love.
Be still
Know
I am
God.

I spoke to you
At your first song.
Be still
Know I am
God.

I speak to you
Through the grass of the meadows.
Be still
Know
I am
God.

I speak to you
Through the trees of the forests.
Be still
Know
I am
God.

I speak to you
Through the valleys and the hills.
Be still
Know
I am
God.

I speak to you
Through the Holy Mountains.
Be still
Know
I am
God.

I speak to you
Through the rain and the snow.
Be still
Know
I am
God.

I speak to you
Through the waves of the sea.
Be still
Know
I am
God.

I speak to you
Through the dew of the morning.
Be still
Know
I am
God.

I speak to you
Through the peace of the evening.
Be still
Know
I am
God.

I speak to you
Through the splendor of the sun.
Be still
Know
I am
God.

I speak to you
Through the brilliant stars.
Be still
Know
I am
God.

I speak to you
Through the storm and the clouds.
Be still
Know
I am
God.

I speak to you
Through the thunder and lightning.
Be still
Know
I am
God

http://www.thenazareneway.com/essene_gospel_of_peace_book_two.htm#VisionsOfEnoch
Your wisdom has been a blessing AM, may the infinite mystery continue to bless you in 2009!

dont have anything to contribute but i enjoyed listening.

If you're silent inside it doesn't matter how loud it is outside because you will automatically merge with it all and there will be no distinction between noise and music.

I wish some people were monks.