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I’ve heard you and understand what you mean.
However, different people have different approaches. As Ajahn Chah said, there are many roads to the temple…
I’m trying not to be critical of anyone’s approach. The brainwashing approach has worked for me, so I’ll stick to it until it is proven otherwise.
I’d love Ajahn Brahm’s and his disciples’ voices as background noise in my life rather than modern music or TV series…
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Yes it is.
(Adding characters here to satisfy Discourse’s required character count, much like a Dhamma teacher filling out the required one hour spot with padding and needless repetition.)
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Bhante, maybe you could flesh this out with some real (anonymized) examples to make sure we are all talking about the same thing. Otherwise the points we all can agree upon might be missed, and those where we differ can’t really be clearly articulated. Since on the internet we all come from such different perspectives, it would be good to clarify exactly what you are talking about.
For example, I don’t think most people (or anyone?) would be opposed to deep learning/deep engagement with the teachings.
As well, there are certainly things to criticize about modern Dhamma talks and teachings.
But these are both quite separate from the proposed issue that a large number of people listen to too many Dhamma Talks. And that this is necessarily a problem.
When I hear your criticism of listening to too many Dhamma talks, I imagine that you are talking about the elderly Sri Lankans I know who may spend a good portion of their day listening to sermons. Is this who you are being critical of?
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Exactly. It’s pretty obvious that the key qualifier for any use of time is “as compared to what?”
My take was that Bhante Sujato was merely trying to “stir the pot” here to generate thought / discussion (and to advertise whatever project he’s planning for next year). Whether this counts as skillful teaching or simply trolling, though, I’ll leave as an exercise to the reader 
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It seems to me, while they disagree, Bhante @sujato and Venerable @Charlotteannun are both 100% right. #math
And for me, as a practitioner, I should check whether listening to dhamma talks advances me on the path or satisfies a worldly craving.
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Bhante Sujato, thank you so much for your sharp observation that there have been voluminous Dhamma talks out there in the market. Might i add in also the numerous zoomS of talks, online
retreats etc from teachers/organisations all over the world to choose from😅for whatever and any purpose according to one’s needs. Lucky us. Duality present itself here as well. Reading all menus in the world cant fill my tummy.
Truly thank you for your 
empathy.
Brainwashing, like a tool, has been useful for me 
. Cant relax here though. Embracing wise view and discernment at the same time by supplementing wise reflection on what one has caught on/listened to, has been enormously helpful and effective navigating onto the Middle Path of Happiness.
Thank you Bhante, all at SuttaCentral & kalyanamittas for your input:pray:
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I have an Ajahn Sujato playlist looping in the background while working my day job. Are you saying I’m doing it wrong?!
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Are you underestimating the power of subliminal learning Bhante?
Of course, in addition to
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Reminds me of all those Archie comics where they record the lecture on tape to play during sleep, hoping to ace the test without studying…
The tapes always seem to get mixed up somehow… 
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My Gr 1 son’s class teacher told me that they did an assignment where the kids had to describe what the word ‘ Peace’ meant to them. He has apparently said ‘meditation’.
He has shown no interest in meditating at home and won’t sit still for two minutes. We don’t force him to meditate as it is counterproductive. But apparently he like sitting outside during recess and ‘meditating in nature’ ( his words not mine!). He only told me about this because I asked about what the teacher said. He randomly quotes Ajahn Brahm too when we are talking about some problem he is facing. My jaw drops sometimes 
Having Dhamma talks in the background since birth somehow is reaching him where trying to make him sit still to meditate hasn’t.
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When Dhamma is central to one’s life, it makes sense to be drawn towards frequent contact with Dhamma teachings.
Whilst it is essentially important to listen wholeheartedly, to reflect on and to recall the important elements of a Dhamma talk, it too can be highly beneficial to listen more lightly and more often which provides a regular connection with Dhamma and with those monastics who practice well.
In laylife, without the benefit of fellow monastics and a teacher close by, it can be supremely supportive, uplifting and deeply comforting to have Dhamma spoken and to listen in the lighter and less intensive way.
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SIDE COMMENT
Have you tried walking meditation? I learned a kind of walking meditation at 4 years old I practiced until total rebellion at 13. I believe it did things for my brain that made learning Buddhist meditation at 34 much easier than for most.
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Yes, this sounds familiar. Understanding isn’t enough, but to place oneself standing under until one’s being is totally still and receptive can make the difference between understanding and realising. The first leaves a dent, but the second removes it.
I know why I keep on coming back to the same talks, and that’s because there too often is someone listening here, and when there is someone listening, there is disturbance due to frictions caused by the tension of the attention. The next time one listens there is no tension because it’s been heard before so the mind is tricked to forget itself, and then the talk becomes a sound without two separate entities, and there is only not two, as it has always been.
And the result of this kind of hearing is that one actually can’t say what’s been understood, one can only sense that something is gone and that makes all the difference.
Tenderly listening to no one
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Thank you. That’s a really nice point. When on a monastery retreat, every thing one sees and every interaction becomes a reminder to practice. In lay life, it is helpful to create those supports and pointers to practice wherever we can find them.
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There are 4 kinds of students of the Dhamma: those making quick & pleasant progress, those whose progress is slow & pleasant, those for whom it’s quick & painful, and those for whom progress is slow & painful.
The advice to cut back on Dhamma talks perhaps may be well-aimed at students in the two pleasant categories. But sincere students deeply mired in pain, who don’t yet have skill in developing wholesome states and are still battered by their own thoughts, need and deserve wholesome crutches.
Some Westerners who carry a particularly heavy burden of suffering, and live far from Buddhist groups (or are too socially awkward to join a group), are drawn to online Buddhist forums where they can reach out to people knowledgeable about Buddhism. One fellow who had read some of my comments on an online forum phoned me in desperation from a mental hospital several days after he attempted suicide. (We talked for an hour and it seemed to lift his spirits immensely.) You wouldn’t want anyone, especially someone in a desperate condition, to feel shamed or discouraged from freely listening to Dhamma talks if they help bring ease.
Then too there are the little old Buddhist-born ladies who fill their days with words of Dhamma. I haven’t met one yet who wasn’t delightful and admirable. Our elderly friend Ayya Satima Bhikkhuni (who passed of heart failure several months ago) spent her last couple of years mostly in bed either meditating or listening to Dhamma talks in Sinhala. She listened to multiple talks each day; she would’ve given a hearty laugh at the idea there’s anything wrong with that.
(I miss that laugh!)
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The suggestion to cut back on Dhamma talks has intrigued me…how many is too many? Who decides this wisely other than the person themselves with their own awareness, experience of their unique situation and self-understanding?
Of course many in lay-life who listen more frequently to Dhamma do so with great pleasure, practice easeful meditation, enjoy wholesome mind states and live quite freely, unbattered.
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I think the point of Bhante’s post isn’t a proscription on listening to Dhamma talks, or giving people a particular allowable number but rather about encouraging people to practice the Dhamma, i.e. actually “walking the talk” rather than just listening to the talks as if it were enough, or relying on them entirely as a spiritual practice alone.
Maybe it’s an idea similar to being sick and getting the doctor’s prescription, reading it over and over but never taking it.
Or like the old story about the learned academic traveling on a boat who was an expert in so many things—biology, geology, psychology etc— but despite all their knowledge, when the boat begins to sink, they suddenly find out that their academic knowledge means little and they realise they didn’t ever learn “swimology”, which is the very practical, experiential knowledge that would save them.
Of course everyone will judge their practice for themselves but it’s interesting to think about where we put our time and attention, and why.
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Thank you @Akaliko, I appreciate the points you’ve raised, also @Charlotteannun.
I feel my post was in large part a response to Bhante’s original post which took a somewhat playful approach, yet I felt, failed to acknowledge, even playfully, the vast variety of people’s situations and patterns of Dhamma listening.
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That’s how I also chose to understand Bhante, but what lacks, in my opinion, is to elaborate on this: “Too many people mainline Dhamma talks for hours a day, and years later seem to know, well, not all that much.”
I don’t know what goes on in other minds but my own, and when I meet a famous monk I might be more silent than usual, but that’s not because I don’t know “much” …
And personally, I experience that my mind doesn’t accumulate that much of the teachings, but there is sufficient data for the mind to know where peace resides and goes directly to that refuge. So, I guess I’m quite happy with a mind that is as empty as a hermits address book 
I remember Ajahn Brahm saying something like this in one of his talks: We actually like you all to get lost! … but now it’s Friday evening and here you are again …
And I understand what he meant, or believe I do, but if you really like me to get lost, why don’t you make me?
Something wrong with the speaker or the listener, or both?
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