What is satsang?

Ostensibly satsang is about like minded people getting together to discuss truth. Or getting together under the guidance of a teacher for the same purpose. Usually the teacher guides the conversation. Or if in a zendo, Advaita meeting, or a Christian church, the dialogue often becomes a diatribe instead, wherein the parishioners in the main listen or ask questions. The teacher, priest, or roshi then pronounces her answers.

It seems to me however that the only thing really useful is to really investigate for oneself, quietly, and gently paying attention all the time. As Ibn al 'Arabi once said centuries ago, one second of real attention is worth a lifetime of talk. 

This is not to say that discussion about spirit cannot be fun, entertaining, or fulfilling in several ways. But it leads nowhere permanent, nowhere real. Ten thousand years of discussion... never ending noise.

The argument usually heard is that without a teacher, without discussion, without reading the sutras ... we are lost and do not know what to do. But is this not mere excuse? A distraction? It is an excuse for avoiding paying attention for ourselves. Like a cat watching a bird - absolutely still, absolute attention. Ah but then we respond that we must study how to pay attention before we can pay attention Indeed, we distract ourselves with any excuse we can muster.

The bottom line is that no amount of talking about the taste of tea will tell us what tea tastes like. We must first taste it for ourselves. Anything else is mere distraction is it not?

What could be simpler?