Do You Talk To Yourself? Are You Mad?

When I was a boy I used to hear this phrase a lot - "Talking to yourself is the first sign of madness". Probably not PC or "woke" to say that in these strange times that we are living in but I believe it is a statement worthy of consideration. Those who know me personally will be thinking to themselves "Well he should know" - not because they respect my knowledge or because I spent many years working for a Community Mental Health Service - but because most folk seem to think that I am a bit mad. Maybe they are right, it's not for me to say.

Obviously, most of us have witnessed the blatantly crazy person talking loudly on the street and having an animated conversation with him or her self (by the way, it is usually a male). But in these days of mobile phones and "bluetooth" technology it is no longer considered strange to see somebody walking down the street apparently talking to themselves. In fact, it has become the norm.

But, technology apart, what do we mean by talking to yourself and is it really a symptom of madness? I guess most people would assume it means talking out loud and answering yourself in the same manner....but is that all it means?

Be honest with yourself for a minute. If you stop doing whatever it is you are doing (ie reading this) and just listen.What do you hear? The traffic, the neighbours, an aeroplane....and what about that conversation that is going on inside your head? What's that all about? Why are you formulating words, sentences and ideas in your head and saying them to yourself? Have you ever really thought about that?

Those of you who have practised any kind of meditation (or tried to) will immediately say "Yep, I know all about the old monkey mind and how hard it is to shut it off!". So, you see, most of us are actually talking to ourselves all the time. All day, every day. And even when we are asleep the mind keeps creating stories to entertain itself - we call this dreaming. Trouble is, most of us are dreaming all day as well. We are not experiencing the "NOW" - we are remembering the past or imagining the future. We are telling ourselves stories or beating ourselves up - we are NOT awake. So, are we all a bit mad? Yup, I think that we are.

So, the question is - if we are all mad, how do we regain our sanity?

The answer is - We must cultivate Silence

Behind all the noise of creation is silence. Silence is the essential condition, the vital ingredient for all creation and all that is created. It is a power in its own right. The artist starts with a blank canvas and the composer places silence between and behind the notes. The very ground of your being, out of which comes all your thoughts, is silence.

The way to silence is through meditation. When you arrive in your own silence you will know true freedom and real power. Stop, take a minute, and listen to the silence within you right now! 

When Carlos Castaneda began to learn sorcery from the Yaqui shaman Don Juan Matus, one of the first things Don Juan told him to do was "stop the internal dialogue". This was the very first and most important lesson Carlos had to master if he was ever to succeed in becoming a "man of knowledge". Don Juan knew that everything depended on this ability - a man of knowledge knows how to control the internal dialogue. He is sane. He does not talk to himself. This does not mean that he no longer thinks - it means he has complete control of his mind. He is the master of his mind, he does not allow the "monkey mind" the freedom to babble on endlessly. This was not an easy task for Carlos and it took him a long time to master it because he had to "trick" his mind and Don Juan would use many "tricks" to guide his apprentice towards sanity.

It is not just the apprentice shaman who has to learn how to stop the internal dialogue. In genuine Yoga, authentic schools of Buddhism and Sufism and masters of the Tao, everything revolves around the ability to stop the internal dialogue. There can be no "enlightenment" until this first step is mastered. In Core Shamanism this process is called "Hollowing Out", it is the process of becoming the Witness or the Aware Self. This is the part of us that can step away from the Ego and the Middle World stories that it continually tells itself. While the ego (which creates our perception of the world) is insane; the Witness is sane. So, become the Witness.

In my (not so humble) opinion, the greatest spiritual teacher of the twentieth century was Osho, an Indian of Jain heritage, also known as Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. Osho did not not belong to any religion or school of philosophy - he was a true "Buddha" in his own right. He was what we ordinary folks call "enlightened". Osho knew that all the systems of yoga and meditation that were being taught in India and increasingly in Europe and America were never going to lead anybody to the enlightenment experience. There was only one exception - Vipassana - which means just witnessing. The trouble was that modern people, especially Westerners, had lost the ability to just sit and witness the reality of the NOW. In other words they were all mad! They were obsessed with the past and the future but totally unaware of the present. Osho himself had become enlightened through long hours of silence - just sitting and witnessing his mind. But when he tried to help others to achieve this state of sanity he soon found that nearly all were incapable of maintaining inner silence. So he had to come up with some ways to "trick" his sannyasins into sanity and "enlightenment". 

Osho "invented" what he called "Dynamic Meditation" which basically used well known and trusted Shamanic techniques involving music and dance to get people out of their minds and into their hearts. He coined the term "No Mind" and said that this was the goal of all his efforts towards dragging his sannyasins, kicking and screaming (sometimes literally), into the reality of the present moment and sanity. He rightly claimed that using Mantras (as taught by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and others) were only useful in creating trance states and deep relaxation - they would never take the spiritual seeker all the way to enlightenment. Also, so called "positive thinking" and "affirmations" were completely useless because they depended on the mind and the mind was the root of the problem. In fact he said it was mind that was the root of ALL problems - hence the need for NO MIND.

So, now you know. You will not be sane until you achieve No Mind. For me Vipassana is the way. I have my own version which was taught by the Nath Yogis in India. This involves being aware of your breath as in comes in and goes out of your body and also being aware of the subtle sounds that appear in your consciousness as you witness the breathing process. So on the in breath and Hum on the out breath. Just allow it to happen and witness what is happening both inside and outside. If any random thoughts appear, just let them go and continue to be the Witness. You are NOT your mind or your thoughts - you are the WITNESS! You can learn more about SOHAM Yoga here.