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There are many shapes of silence. Silence in the mind. Silence in deep sleep. Silence when I am fully present without distracted by the past or hijacked by the future. There is meditative silence when the mind is here and now. There is relational silence, silence of attention. Silence of oneness. Silence in nature when the human voices are quiet. Silence in deep dreamless sleep.
Reading this passage reminds me of a story I had read some time ago. It is an old story. Lao Tzu, the Chinese philosopher and author of The Tao, was passing by a village. It was night time. He was invited by the village chief to spend the night at his place. Early in the morning Lao Tzu was ready to go for a meditative walk. The chief requested that he walk with Lao Tzu. Lao Tzu welcomed him to walk with him. After a while the sun started rising filling the clouds with beautiful colors. The chief expressed his wonderment by saying," Look how beautiful the sky is looking!" Lao Tzu rebuked the chief by saying these words, " You talk too much." He taught him a good lesson of silence and a lesson of mindfulness. I have learned to listen to silence by practicing mindfulness meditation. The clouds of agitated thoughts and disruptive emotions fade way and I see the sky of clarity. The noises in the mind go away and I feel the presence of silence. Such experiences are very profound and they help me to realize my true identity. May we all cultivate openness, clarity and silence! This is the way of being. Namaste!
1 Comment
Debbie Podwika
5/20/2023 09:15:35 pm
I like the Awakin post & your reply. I remember Dr. Dyer saying, as you look at a beautiful sunset with someone, once you turn to say how beautiful it is to the other person, you miss that moment looking at the sunset. I agree silence is wonderful and many times we do not get enough, not just because of everything in our environment but our own noise in our head. We do need to find more time for silence, but I will also add we also do need to find time to listen to the wind and the birds etc. I recently went to listen to a Green Drinks speaker and he talked about how he had photographed 130 birds in our area! Most people are lucky they see/know a handful. Those birds are there but we never notice them, either by sight or hearing. What else are we not noticing? As they say, "the good, the bad, and the ugly?" If we notice only the good that is not the best thing actually. If we notice only the bad or ugly that is not good either. When we can get silent, we can notice other things much better. This then can lead us down the path to making the world a better place. Sometimes it may lead us to notice things about ourselves. Sometimes we can notice things about another person, someone we are in a relationship with, or our children, parents, neighbors and even a stranger. How many people say they never noticed the homeless people or a building where they live was demolished, or that they are shocked their partner is unhappy? These are signs we need to get more silent because we are no longer noticing the things we should be and we run the risk of harming ourselves and others. Leave a Reply. |
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