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I really like Ajahn Brahm's Darma talks on YouTube. But, I can perfectly understand what he's saying on 2x speed.

Am I losing anything by listening at this speed or is it ok as long as it's not for any other reason than I can understand it so I can watch two in the same amount of time as one?

5 Answers 5

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I have done the same thing for slower speakers. In my opinion, it's just fine to speed up your listening as long as you grasp the content.

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Good idea but be mindful because in sometime your mind will feed your ego with "I am faster" feeling and you mind end up trying to listen or read faster than you should. That can cause some harm because i have seen that sometimes it is better to listen slower when learning certain teachings.

And as Lord Buddha advised you should listen to things you have already learnt again and again because sometimes even if you know something going over and over makes you realize a whole another side of it.

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It is said that the Buddha spoke very quickly. How quickly? During the time an ordinary person speaks one word the Buddha could speak 128 words. Buddha spoke very fast.

Source: Handbook of Abhidhamma Studies, by Venerable Sayādaw U Sīlānanda, Volume 1, page 19.

So it might be OK to listen fast but if you can comprehend what is been said. Perhaps to 128x times faster. But remember though the Buddha spoke (I would say communicated) 128 words when someone else spoke 1 word, each listener would hear a subset as if this has been said to him. So in this case the amount you can speedup is something less than 128x but also limited by the rate you can understand what is spoken and also comprehend what is spoken. If you can

  1. understand what is spoken and
  2. comprehend what is spoken

at the rate of 2x speed then it is OK.

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If the content of the Dhamma talk can be understood in a satisfactory way, there should be no problem in increasing the speed.

If increasing the speed is done due to restlessness, then that is a hindrance that should be dealt with by taking it as a meditation object, in order to cultivate insights.

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Great question...I would say consider the fact that his calmness and slowness might be characteristics you want to absorb/emulate

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