White Tara said:
“Unkind speech, which includes loose speech, can be divided into three kinds: meaningless talk, bawdy jokes, and endless idle chatter.”
I would say:
“Buddhists should observe silence, prioritize inner observation, and engage in mindfulness. Excessive talking leads to meaningless chatter. First, it wastes precious time. Second, it leads to slips of the tongue. Third, it often causes unnecessary trouble. Fourth, bawdy jokes violate samaya.”
I often hear people say:
We talked for three days and three nights.
We chatted all night until daybreak.
Bored people look for other bored people to chat with. They talk and talk, but in the end, they are still bored.
Many people like to chitchat.
Many people like to talk frivolously and endlessly.
White Tara said:
“It is better to utter fewer insignificant words, idle chatter, and irrelevant comments. Wasting one’s time and life will cause one to be reborn in the three lower realms, and become cicadas, frogs, crickets, or other creatures that keep croaking and chirping without end.”
“Habitual chatter becomes a habit, and people come to enjoy idle conversation.”
“For cultivators, delighting in meaningless and casual conversation not only affects recitation of Buddhas’ epithets, inner observation, meditation, diligence, and wisdom, it also makes it easier to break one’s speech samaya.”
I feel deeply that:
Life is already very short, and time is often insufficient. On top of that, people are busy striving in their careers and businesses, leaving little or no time for spiritual cultivation.
If time is spent on:
- Casual chatting.
- Long and frivolous conversations.
- Meaningless talk.
Wouldn’t that be a waste?
***
Someone asked me:
“Grandmaster Lu, when you speak on the dharma seat, you lecture extensively. If we compiled all those teachings into books, would they not fill a book depository? If that is not endless chatter, then what is?”
I replied:
“Not a single sentence was spoken!”
Someone asked me:
“Grandmaster Lu has written more than two hundred books by hand, over forty years. Isn’t that also comparable to endless chatter and words without end? Wouldn’t that mean the time was wasted?”
I replied:
“Not a single word was written!”
Someone asked:
“Are the questions and answers between Zen masters also considered idle chatter?”
I replied:
“They are teachings.”
“What do they teach?”
“Lightning flashes and sparks from flint have gone through many kalpas.”
“We do not understand?”
I replied:
“Do not be completely ignorant. Quickly contemplate this!”
I would say:
Zen-master dialogues are not idle chatter or meaningless talk. Great and wise teachers use speech to enlighten people. Even the simplest words can carry profound meaning, thunderous and deafening, to teach and guide sentient beings.
My dharma talks are prajna.
My writings are the wisdom of buddhas.