Ever noticed you have a tendency to talk for no reason at all, and I mean to talk to no purpose, to no point.. Often its gossip, to try and make people like you, but sometimes its just totally random crap about anything really, about the bloody weather..
This is because you momentarily become ‘uncomfortable’ NOT talking, because you ‘think’ not talking makes you nervous, ie you ARE DRIVEN BY SOMETHING ELSE TO TALK, and you often will say anything that comes into your head, from ‘who knows’ where… And with ‘who knows’ what unconscious purpose, as ‘you’ don’t have a fecking clue what ‘its’ up to…
So this is the last of the 3 classic Blind Spots for the gifted – Chattering way, ‘Mindless’ Talking, speaking without thought, without conscious selection of what you are going to say. This is best seen as the EGO’s ‘habit’ of talking, like the habits of Rushing and Failing, and over time it develops a life of its own, it becomes separate from you. For some it even becomes difficult to remember what you have said, at its very worst like someone ‘else’ is speaking…
Key Lesson: Pointless chat, gossiping, bitching et al as a habit is a key device your Ignorance uses to fuck you – to instigate a negative reaction against you, in some way, from the listener. Commenting on things that have nothing to do with you, all habitual passive responses, expressing your opinion on matters that are unimportant to ‘you’, trying to contribute to pointless discussions or just be right about some trivia are all conversational devices Ignorance loves, because you are not in control of what you are saying…. IT is. And your are leaking energy and creating self sabotage all over the shop, every other sentence is going to cause you problems, sometimes large, sometimes small, but you are totally oblivious. And until you go some way to CLEANSING YOUR VOICE, and develop what folks like me call GRAVITAS, its just going to get worse..
Now, you want to change your life a little bit today, to make some progress on the left hand path, (hint – you are a seeker, so the answer is yes)..? Then start thinking about what you say and how you say it BEFORE you say it.. Yep, its not just ‘what’ you say, how fast and how low you speak also matter quite a lot, Just try, now.. much as you are going to find it quite hard, if not IMPOSSIBLE to do it all the time…
Yep, this Blind Spot, unlike Fear and Sorrow, is going to be a tad more challenging to fix, boys and girls. This one gives EVERYONE trouble, even the most devoted followers of the 4th way often just stop talking altogether, its that hard a bastard to cure..
So background.. mindless chat is a biggie on the left hand path, it fact on all paths, with most Asian systems focusing on it, even the Old Testament, Proverbs and Psalms particularly are full of warnings that the poor use of your ‘lips’ -which is choice of Words, and the use of your ‘Tongue’ – which is the quality of sound, separating ‘close friends’, ‘causing strife’, ‘having the power of life and death’. But there is a problem… much as its extremely easy to understand the potential for this, its EXTREMELY DIFFICULT to fix in practise.
In fact its so hard to know what is ‘you’ and what is not you, what is out of control, what is Ego control, what is habit without constant mental focus on it. So most systems simply say ‘speak less’, cut out anything you don’t need, even go through prolonged periods of silence, as that is the only work in this day and age. See you need to ‘talk’, to say stuff ALL THE TIME, way more than folks did 2 thousand years ago, so you have a problem, we all have a problem, BUT there is a solution..
See, a VERY long time ago, certain of the esoteric Buddhist sects, the Tibetans particularly kinda figured out that, beyond a simple level of thoughtful control of your speech, you can NEVER fix it directly, you cannot think you way out of it. And total silence is just not going to work, even for priests, there has to be another way. So they found it – bypass the horns of this particular dilemma, and develop spiritual power in your Voice, improve your Voice to literally burn the habitual patterns out, to paraphrase the man of unclean lips himself, Isaiah 6: 5-7… get the Seraphim to bring you a hot coal from the altar to touch your lips and cleanse your voice with spiritual fire..
You have to develop Gravitas, a gorgeous Latin word which means Weight, Force and originally meant Spiritual Power, in your Voice, to CLEANSE your voice, more specifically your throat. You do that via sound, the Pitch your Voice has, its ‘Depth’, and the Rhythm of your speech, its ‘Cadence’. You need to develop a powerful Gravitas, to infuse your voice with spirit to such an extent that it empowers everything you say… Indeed, this use of sound is SO POWERFUL that it pretty much works on ALL YOUR OTHER PROBLEMS over time as well…. cause if it can fix speech, then it CAN FIX ANYTHING, but that is for another day. For now, ever wonder why the high end monks of Tibet basically sit in rows all damn day chanting the same thing OVER AND OVER again, why they shun all other initial methods and just ‘hum’… well now you know.
So, you need to LOWER your voice to the correct pitch for ‘you’, in order to make it much harder for your Ignorance to effect your speech patterns, for you to lose the ‘habit’ of mindless talking. Over time your Ignorance will literally give up trying to effect it, and your speech will become normal, natural, all by itself. But again what is a right way of speaking for ‘you’ may not be right for someone else…
Yes, sadly that is different for most people, however to generalise for this Blog post, most men need to speak as as low as they can, push your voice down as far as you can, while keeping a reasonable rhythm, a slow but consistent ‘cadence’, what some call a ‘whiskey’, smokers, even a Commanding voice. Most women need to just lower their voice to a moderate degree AND speak much slower, a much lower ‘cadence’ – what some call a ‘husky’, confident even sexy voice. For both types, its crucial to speak from your Throat, not your Mouth, and soften the end of your words, to finish the sentence gently, but that will come naturally the more you do it.
The result of practising these NEW voices, or changing your voice is manifold, indeed this is one of a type of early practises for seekers that literally has HUGE benefits so folks like me like to use them to show seekers the way, and to illustrate the whole Personal Excellence concept, just how much better you can get, quite quickly. Indeed, most find their overall vitality itself, their lower life force is dramatically improved, increased in little more than a few days..
So how do you do this you ask, how do I lower my voice.. easy – you ‘hum’. I’m not going to deviate from the classic Tibetan style of training for this one, they are simply they best at it and their method is super simple..
- You are going to hum the word ‘Me’, through ‘pursed’ lips so as to hold your mouth in a set position that emphasises your throat. If you struggle with the ‘e’ use ‘Mu’ to start, as some men can get better results.
- With one long exhale, start by saying ‘M’ quickly with your lips in a pronounced way over 1s only, and then pull them together for the ‘e’ sound, exhaling it for a solid 8-10 seconds.
- As you exhale you manipulate your vocal cords to lower the sound of the ‘e’, as much as you can, and it may help at the beginning to lower the volume of the sound. Your vocal cords with ‘rough up’, be gravelly at the start of this process as they change to the lower vibration, and that’s what you want.
- When you get good at this it often helps to find a small room, a toilet or broom cupboard say and try it in there with door shut. You should be able to get the air to ‘reverb’ when your voice is low enough, for the sound to bounce of the walls and shake the air.. You will know it when it happens, so stay with it as a long as you can (its fun..), as that is when you will start to develop real power in your voice.
- Stop when your vocal cords get a little ‘rough’, as that is enough for the session, otherwise you can go on as long as you wish. Don’t worry about the roughness as that is your vocal cords changing, and, coincidently what strong alcohol and smoking do to them as well…
In time your voice will decrease in pitch, and remain slightly lower every time you go back to normal talking. More you do it, quicker it gets there. The slower talking will come naturally with it, and don’t forget the softer ending to your sentences, a slight falling pitch, too..
This process will go a very long way to fixing the hold Ignorance has over your speech, plus deliver a whole host of other benefits to the gifted seeker, so don’t be shy about doing it twice or 3 times a day, 10-15mins at a stretch. Try and do it by yourself or out walking on your own also. Don’t underestimate this practise – I know many spiritual adepts who, after they have worked through the basics, stop everything and just to this, its that powerful..
To end today… don’t be shy about being mindful when you speak as well, to shift through your thoughts like grains of sand as the ancients did, before you decide if its worth saying them. Speak as if you are composing an email first and then say it. Take some pleasure in your voice and what you say, develop true ‘Cadenza’, have some flourish in your speech, make it attractive, interesting.. as that is what the original Latin into Italian meaning that word has.
You want some well meant advice on what to say? For now just go with be ‘Be Nice or Be Quiet’, build up, don’t tear down, as you would want others to be nice to you, would you not. If nothing else, remember all your negativity toward others is really a projection of your own self hatred, and you would not want others to be able to read you like a book, given the choice. Know all gossip and habitual talking is ‘ugly’, and over time can make everything you say quite hard to listen too… and you don’t want that, do you?
Quote to end as always.. lets give you some old school Proverbs this time, the Old Testament at its best, and the one chapter you should mull over when you can’t sleep…
‘The lips of fools bring them strife, and their mouths invite a beating. The mouths of fools are their undoing, and their lips are a snare to their very lives.’ – Proverbs 18: 6&7
Laters..
TOB
