Unnecessary talk is one of the chief obstacles to awakening. If we want to be in touch with ourselves, we need to reduce unnecessary or mechanical talking and, in order to do this it is necessary to know what it is, both in theory and practice.

   Talking has many uses. We are the only animals on this planet that has the faculty to use language. We use it to communicate great ideas, to ask, to express emotions in all their forms, for greeting, etc. There are a lot of uses for necessary talking.

   On the other hand, there is also talking that has no use, that does not achieve any aim, which is just talk for talk´s sake. You do not care if the other person is interested in listening to what you are saying and perhaps you are not even aware of what is going on, being engrossed in the conversation. After the conversation you might be without energy, exhausted and not being able to remember what you were talking about; it was so trivial, without any sense. Talking like this wastes a huge amount of energy and it is a sign of unconsciousness.

   You do not even need another person around for unnecessary talking. You can talk to yourself (in fact it happens), arguing, having an imaginary conversation in your head. You might be making mental notes on everything that you are doing. All this is reduced with self-observation and should involve all centers. If you are inner talking about everything you do or you see, probably you will be losing great amounts of energy that you could otherwise use for better purposes.

   There is no fixed rule to tell us what is necessary or unnecessary talking. You must observe, seeing if what you are saying is of any use and how it makes you feel. Some people are more prone to unnecessary talking than others and will need to work more conscientiously on it. For some others who talk very little, who do not express themselves therefore they will have to undertake a practical exercise.

   Recently, I was walking with a friend through a park, talking incessantly. My friend told me to observe myself, to observe my talking. It was almost impossible to stop it and we decided to do the following exercise: not to talk until finishing the stroll. This transformed the stroll into something very interesting. I began to see what surrounded me and to have another view of the trees, the flowers and everything around me. The stroll lasted just one hour but it felt like an eternity. The notion of the time had changed. I had lost less energy.

   This exercise is not valid for all situations because we need to speak. But I learned something important. Sometimes I felt that I had something very important to say and wanted to break the silence. But counting up to ten and saying "well, I am going to make a mental note of it and I will say it later", when I reached ten, the thing had less importance and, sometimes, I did not even remember "such an important thing".

   To work with unnecessary talking requires self-observation to be aware of what we lose by indulging in it and what we gain by refraining from it. I remind you that unnecessary talking is as much inner as outer. In fact, the inner is a reflection of the outer.