One way to reduce mental distractions is to drop the gossip. In Kannada, there is a saying that if someone creates some nasty karma, people who keep talking about it will get it. The person who did it may have forgotten about it. But people who keep talking about it will get it because it occupies their minds. These are simple things to remember when living and working with other people.
You may have heard this story about Socrates, who was considered to be phenomenally wise, even in his lifetime. One day, someone came up to him and said, “I want to tell you something about Diogenes.” Socrates said, “I have a simple principle. Whatever you want to say, you must put it through the triple filter.” The man asked, “What is this triple filter?” Socrates said, “First thing – whatever you’re going to tell me now, have you ascertained the truth?” The man said, “No. Someone just told me this.” Socrates said, “So it doesn’t pass the first filter. The second
filter is, is it something nice?” “No, quite the contrary – that’s why I want to tell you this.” Socrates said, “Then it doesn’t pass the second filter either. Is it something useful?” The man said, “No, I don’t think it’s useful. I just want to tell you this.” Socrates said, “That means it doesn’t pass any of the filters.”
Put these three filters on your mind: If someone wants to tell you something, have they made sure that it is the absolute truth? Is it something good about someone? Is it useful? If, from whatever others want to tell you or what you want to tell someone else, you filter out everything that does not meet these three criteria, you will have a lot of space in your mind to do useful, wonderful, and spiritual things. If you fill yourself with unfiltered information, you will always be busy with junk, whether it is someone else’s or your own.
You should never take pleasure in someone else’s problems by gossiping about them. You could make it a rule for yourself to not speak about anyone when that person is not face-to-face with you.
Have a fabulous weekend