Exploratory talk

Beyond the idle chat of ordinary folk lies the exploratory talk of super-ordinary folk.

When the hubble and bubble of idle chat fills the attention centres of the talkers and listeners then nothing important is likely to be said. And there will be no rocking the boat of parochial enculturation.

When the considered cerebrations of exploratory talk fills the attention centres of the talkers and listeners then new thoughts and feelings will arise. And there will be cracking of norms and shifting of paradigms as new cultural forms are created for the spiritual journey.

So how might the balance be shifted? By promoting stillness and seclusion?

Virginia Woolf (1882 – 1941) famously said "A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.” I feel inclined to upgrade this to, “A person must be of independent means and have a room, if not a house, of their own if they are to write about what passes through their attention centre.”

But cognitive bias is in action! I live alone and work from home. I enjoy my solitude. I thus perhaps deviate from the norm. Other people live with other people and travel to their daily 9 to 5 jobs. They have limited freedom from idle chat other perhaps than when attending to their ablutions and during the anonymity of commuting.

But I am not alone. Blaise Pascal (1623 – 1662) reckoned that “All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” It is perhaps no coincidence that Pascal also reckoned that “The heart has its reasons which reason knows nothing about.”

Earlier, in Ancient Greece, Socrates (c. 470 BC – 399 BC) had reckoned that "An unexamined life is not worth living". And this linked to an aphorism inscribed above the door to the temple of Apollo at Delphi – “Know Yourself”. Aristophanes (c. 446 BCE – c. 386 BCE) responded, "And you will know yourself, how ignorant and stupid you are."

But that kind of talk is old paradigm.

These days we have the new sciences of evolutionary psychology and behavioural economics linked in consilience with the fast expanding field of neuroscience and the concept of neuronal correlates of consciousness (NCC)

It gets increasingly obvious that “The heart has its reasons which reason knows nothing about.” This can now be restated as “instincts and intuitions which are fast and adaptive can manage reactions to external stimuli using only the unconscious - and it is some time later that the conscious operator gets to know about it”.

My mindbrain works well on its own. It flows while finding ideas and writing them down. I am increasingly easy about trusting that the unconscious will generate sensible ideas and join them into stories.

But I am not in numinous flow all of the time.

Sometimes the ‘self’ comes back into focus complete with low self esteem and the associated depressing thoughts and feelings. The attention centre is flooded with negative stuff. The ruminations slip into their habitual ruts and the downward spiral into depression is upon me.

But the downturns are not as deep as they used to be. When the ‘witness’ is awake the storm clouds can be sensed approaching and this helps to defuse them. Three deep breaths bring the mindbrain back to equanimity in the present moment - more often than not!

But, whether or not I am equanimous, the idle chat v exploratory talk continuum takes different forms depending on whether I am talking to myself, with one other person or with a group.

There can be self talk when I am alone. It can be anywhere on the continuum. Sometimes it is amazing and inspiring – at least to me. Sometimes it tripples with trivialities. It is useful to think of two ‘agencies’ – (a) the ever busy ‘unconscious’ which is the source of the stuff that appears in the attention centre and (b) the unattached and non judgemental ‘witness’ who calmly notices what is going on and knows it to be just mind stuff.

Talk with other individuals tends to be trivial at first but it can quickly get heavy – especially with like minded souls. But ‘those who know do not speak’. Sometimes there can be a sitting silence.

Things can get quite difficult when communicating in groups. Even when the group is broadly like minded the individuals will have different world views - and it can therefore be tough to log in to what they are all saying. There is the danger of creating a ‘crowd’ driven by group-think with rituals and nick nacks. On such occasions it is better to ‘go lonely as the rhinoceros’.

Another agentic variation involves the media – text, audio and video. Most of that stuff does not involve mindfulness of the present moment. Instead there is rationality that promotes the intellect rather than stillness. Such talkers thus miss their subjective experience of peaceful compassion and the beginnings of wisdom. They would do well to heed the Diamond Sutra:

Thus shall ye think of this fleeting world:
A star at dawn, a bubble in a stream;
A flash of lightning in a summer cloud;
A flickering lamp, a phantom, and a dream.

And Thich Nhat Hahn fleshes out the implications in his Fourteen Mindfulness Trainings – the first three are:

The First Mindfulness Training: Openness

Aware of the suffering created by fanaticism and intolerance, we are determined not to be idolatrous about or bound to any doctrine, theory, or ideology, even Buddhist ones. We are committed to seeing the Buddhist teachings as guiding means that help us develop our understanding and compassion. They are not doctrines to fight, kill, or die for. We understand that fanaticism in its many forms is the result of perceiving things in a dualistic and discriminative manner. We will train ourselves to look at everything with openness and the insight of interbeing in order to transform dogmatism and violence in ourselves and in the world.

The Second Mindfulness Training: Non-attachment to Views

Aware of the suffering created by attachment to views and wrong perceptions, we are determined to avoid being narrow-minded and bound to present views. We are committed to learning and practicing non-attachment to views and being open to others’ experiences and insights in order to benefit from the collective wisdom. We are aware that the knowledge we presently possess is not changeless, absolute truth. Insight is revealed through the practice of compassionate listening, deep looking, and letting go of notions rather than through the accumulation of intellectual knowledge. Truth is found in life, and we will observe life within and around us in every moment, ready to learn throughout our lives.

The Third Mindfulness Training: Freedom of Thought

Aware of the suffering brought about when we impose our views on others, we are determined not to force others, even our children, by any means whatsoever – such as authority, threat, money, propaganda, or indoctrination – to adopt our views. We are committed to respecting the right of others to be different, to choose what to believe and how to decide. We will, however, learn to help others let go of and transform fanaticism and narrowness through loving speech and compassionate dialogue.

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AND SO: Beyond the idle chat of ordinary folk is the exploratory talk of super-ordinary folk. And there will be cracking of norms and shifting of paradigms as new cultural forms of stillness and seclusion are created for the spiritual journey.