INNER VOICE LESSONS

INNER VOICE LESSONS

"One of the first things you notice as you try to quiet the mind is the lack of quiet--all the chattering going on, all the discussions, the dialogs, the committee discussions going on up in your head, and sometimes all over your body. There seems to be never-ending chatter.
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Often our first thought as we start to meditate is, 'How can I stop the chatter? How can I just quiet all those voices so things can be perfectly quiet inside?'  But as you practice, you begin to realize that you just can't put a stop to things that way. It requires a more gradual process, learning to bring that conversation under control.
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When you start out there are lots unskillful voices in there, and frequently the discussion is not being run according to Robert's Rules of Order. This voice comes barging in, that voice yells at you, this voice whispers in your ear. And all the subterfuge and techniques of a political meeting are nothing compared with what goes on in the mind--all the tricks the mind plays on itself, how the different voices try to get their way--because many of them are not just aimless voices saying random things. They have a purpose in saying their thing. There's an urging on to action in one direction or another, so they try all kinds of tricks to get their way. The mind has countless ways of getting a particular idea or a particular motion through the committee. So to begin with, when we work with the mind, we want to make that discussion more skillful.
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As you start meditating, try to gain some detachment from the voices, so that you're watching them from outside, instead of joining in with the conversation, taking on the voices as your own. This is one of the lessons of the teaching on not-self: It's not you talking in there. There are voices in there, and you've tended to identify with them, but you can begin to dis-identify with them as well. Tell yourself, "I'm not necessarily responsible for things that come bursting into the mind. I don't have to act on the firing of every nerve end. I don't have to get involved." If a voice comes and urges action, just let it urge, urge, urge, and then it'll stop after a while. You can just keep on watching.
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Just the act of wanting to make that conversation more skillful: That in and of itself begins to distance you from it. Practice concentrating on the breath as a way of giving you a good firm basis on which to stand so that you can stay outside of the discussion. But simply watching the discussion isn't going to make it go away on its own. You've also got to learn how to make it more skillful. Sometimes that means introducing new voices--like the meditating voice that says, 'Hey, stay with the breath, stay with the breath, make the breath comfortable, allow the breath to be comfortable. Give us some room here.'..."
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Thanissaro Bhikkhu
Excerpt from "Inner Voice Lessons"
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Read the full essay here:

http://www.dhammatalks.org/Archive/Writings/CrossIndexed/Published/Meditations2/0208n1a2%20M2%20Inner%20Voice%20Lessons.pdf

Or here:

http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/thanissaro/meditations2.html