Silence is Golden

How often has it been that in the midst of a discussion you jump the gun and land up interrupting the speaker ? Or better yet speaking at the same time as another person ?  (Tv anchors in India come to mind) 

The result of both these situations is unfortunate . One tends to miss out on a lot and also this tends to result in misunderstandings and arguments. 

Let’s look at one case - speaking at the same time as another. The problem here is that no one can understated any thing and your own point of view is drowned out in the same manner as any other point of view. At best you might get a sound bite in but then that sound bite will not portray the entire idea and could be construed to mean absolutely anything. The flip side is that you will also not understand a word of what the other person is saying and will be prone to the same error in judgement by just listening to a sound bite and jumping to conclusions.

Now the other case - you jump the gun. Keeping silent does not mean that there is true silence , we all have this persistent “noise” in our heads we love to call thinking. When you think at the same time as when listening to a person; it is essentially the same as two people taking at the same time. Your thought will drown out the other persons voice and you will tend to jump the gun , miss understand and generally not understand the point of view or idea being put forth by the other person. 

For one to truly understand the other point of view one has to listen and to listen one has to be quite - not just. Verbally but mentally too. 

There are other advantages (spiritual in nature) of silence that can be discussed another day. 

All the books considered sacred say silence is golden and is a way to find yourself and the truth/almighty . But I guess best said in Proverbs “Do you see someone who speaks in haste? There is more hope for a fool than for them.” 

C