There are patient listeners. Others interrupt while you are talking. Often the two are found talking simultaneously, neither listening to the other. In the West, no one interrupts when one is talking. People wait for the other to finish and ask, "Shall I speak?" At home, when the family gathers, one can see two people talking at once, or all talking simultaneously. An American embassy official went to a university and invited several professors, having arranged a distinguished scholar to deliver an address. There this phenomenon of everyone talking simultaneously about different topics was witnessed. The speaker of the day stood there speechless. The meeting ended without the speech being delivered. The embassy official said to the foreign dignitary, "I shall NOT think of another meeting of this description."
When I am aware of this trait in me as a defect and try to rectify it, first of all I find nothing in me endorses my decision. Everything in me wants to talk. Unless I am ashamed of myself socially, I may not make a successful beginning. Such a successful beginning will generate frustration in me, sometimes disgust. In a meeting, I find the words come out of my mouth involuntarily and then I take them back. The remedy is, when a strong sense of shame pervades me, I must convince my mind of the truth that speaking destroys the purpose. It is a milestone in one's inner endeavour when the mind is convinced of that TRUTH. Once the mind is convinced, the urge will be transferred from the mouth to the mind.
When the mind is refractory, what else can anyone do? He must go to the silence behind the thought in the mind. Similarly, he has to go to the emotion and sensation behind the thought. Now the mastery over oneself emerges as Shanti, Spiritual Peace. Going behind one thought fulfils it copiously. If one can remain there, it is great. At least one must go to such a depth each time an occasion for accomplishment arises. This is not a discipline to shed interruption. Whatever the work, whichever the decision, this is the only process. Ordinary good manners possess it. I ask for the same inside. Know these things are not done in a day. If you are in a hurry, don't begin. Wait for endless PATIENCE. Such is the inner attitude and its preliminary stages of invoking the Spirit.