December 6

Solitude

Don't joke all the time with each other. Be happy and cheerful inside. Why dissipate in useless talk the perceptions you have gained? Words are like bullets: when you spend their force in idle conversation, your supply of inner ammunition is wasted. Your consciousness is like a milk pail: when you fill it with the peace of meditation you ought to keep it that way. Joking is often false fun that drives holes in the sides of your bucket and allows all the milk of your peace to run out.

--Paramahansa Yogananda, in a talk to disciples