Question: During my self-observation, I’ve noticed what strikes me as needless mental chatter. Should I try to curb it?

What I learned from Zen was to really sit with whatever was arising. My Zen teacher would suggest that I sit without a timer. Just sit for as long as possible.

No doubt he had many reasons for making this suggestion, but one, I suspect, was this: when your intention (let’s call it that) is to just be with whatever is arising without trying any technique out, you’ll really feel the thought-streams (vritti, in Sanskrit). No technique. Hands free for now. At some point as you’re just being with whatever is arising, there will be a genuine sense of detachment, a genuine “felt sense” that it doesn’t matter whether this is arising or not. You’ll really feel that. 

We can, of course, discuss various skillful approaches as needed, but for now just see whether you can be with whatever experience is arising (give yourself license not to try to do anything with it at all).

When you’re just being with X, then you’ll soon notice restlessness or resistance. Be with that. Then you’ll notice fantasizing or desiring. Be with that.

Slowly and naturally, you’ll realize that you really, really are the welcoming with which all experiences are welcomed. You’ll “feel it in your bones,” as my wife Alexandra sometimes says. And slowly, as the firm grip of attachment (or aversion) will be released, you’ll feel not that you are relaxed but that you are relaxation, peace, love.