Learning from the Buddha: Staying Away from Gossip

Learn from the Buddha, and refrain from gossiping.

Gossip is a kind of mental diet, but it is a poor one. When the mind engages in gossip, it consumes food that is dull and uninteresting. The result of consuming such food is that you become deeply entrenched in ignorance, distraction, or emptiness. The mind that feeds on gossip becomes very bored once it stops; to avoid this boredom, it gossips again, consuming more dull food. Gossip is like drug addiction; prolonged gossiping will make your mind increasingly ignorant, scattered, weak, and ever more in need of the “gossip drug.”

Practitioners must be vigilant against gossip. Gossip takes many forms: chatting in groups, hunting for various curiosities, prying into others’ privacy, focusing on others’ stories without self-awareness or pure exploration of practice theories—these are all forms of gossip. Gossip easily cultivates and fosters greed, hatred, and delusion; no practitioner with right understanding and right action would neglect to be wary of gossip. In a sense, refraining from gossip is part of practice. By maintaining a non-gossiping attitude in life, you create a pure sanctuary (place of practice) or a tranquil sitting room for your own cultivation.

Some believe that gossiping is one way to socialize or communicate with others—a form of entertainment and relaxation for the mind that outweighs its drawbacks. This is not true. Gossip is not a good means of communication; it easily breeds conflict and accumulates causes for emotional separation. Gossip numbs the mind; it drains the essence of the mind without awareness; it leads you far away into an illusory world without realizing your return. A good practitioner is certainly not someone who gossips; gossip has nothing to do with a well-trained practitioner.

Do not engage in gossip out of a desire to fit in with others. A good practitioner is neither conformist nor isolated; they simply exist with warmth, gentleness, respectfulness, frugality, and humility. A tree in a forest does not seek to fit in nor isolate itself; its focus does not lie on others at all—it does not seek relationships or self-image with others. It quietly works on itself by rooting downwards according to its nature while growing upwards according to its nature; it transforms its energy into more flowers, fruits or shade for others.

A tree symbolizes beauty; it exemplifies non-gossiping behavior. Birds hop around on its branches singing songs—the tree simply appreciates them regardless of what song they sing—it enjoys equally and cherishes this enjoyment without discussing or judging anything; appreciating and enjoying are its favorite tasks. If a group of birds chatters on its branches—whether they are singing or gossiping—the tree never participates. The soul of the tree does not jump into the birds’ stories to gossip or stir things up; it merely appreciates and enjoys.

A breeze surrounds the tree—it may linger playfully teasing or tempting it—but the tree remains unmoved; if the wind gets angry and shakes it vigorously pushing against it twisting its branches or blowing its leaves away—the tree still maintains itself gracefully. The tree does not get caught up in the wind’s tales or gossips. A tree often interacts with winds or birds but never gossips along with them. Birds or winds cannot assimilate a tree; the tree will never fall into their gossipy stories without realizing.

The tree stands among all things without losing itself nor highlighting itself—doing neither too much nor too little at all. Because of its quietness and lack of intention everything done by the tree is just right. The tree serves as an excellent model teaching non-isolation and non-conformity. It teaches non-gossiping, restraint from indulgence, and avoidance of boredom effectively as well as being an excellent teacher embodying everything spoken by the Buddha about Dharma within itself. Just learning from one single tree can impart all essential teachings of Buddhism.

Like a human-shaped tree standing in this world—maintain your non-gossiping nature. Those who do not engage in gossip are beautiful—their beauty reflects that which resembles Buddha’s essence well. It’s hard for us to imagine that Buddha was someone who engaged heavily in gossiping behavior. In my imagination, Buddha was neither reclusive nor overly independent holding onto individuality nor was he someone chattering away seeking approval from others while losing himself entirely instead his existence resembles that of a grand fragrant flowered tree shedding all illusory branches leaving only true fragrant flowers sweet fruits or eye-cleansing greens behind him—learn from Buddha by maintaining your non-gossiping nature.

by – Taiwan Fearless Tathagata Sprout Great Perfection Zen Meditation Center