El silencio es profundo esta mañana. No es portentoso; parece que no hay nada en la espera. Es un silencio suave, líquido y pastel, un brillo sobre aguas tranquilas.
Es bueno escuchar el silencio que envuelve cada día. De la misma manera que la música cobra vida por el silencio que rodea a las notas, un día cobra vida por el silencio que rodea nuestras acciones. Y el amanecer es el momento en que el silencio se revela con mayor claridad.
Una vez conocí a un hombre que se crió en las praderas canadienses. Nos pusimos a hablar sobre el espacio abierto y cómo había moldeado su espíritu. "Cuando el viento se detiene", dijo, "suena tan fuerte que tod@s se detienen a escuchar".
El pensamiento me intrigó. ¿Cómo puede sonar fuerte el final de un sonido?
Pero cuando viajé a esas praderas, empecé a comprender. Para la gente de las grandes praderas, el sonido que escuchan, la música que subyace en sus vidas, es el aullido constante y omnipresente del viento. Para ellos no es sonido en absoluto. Cuando se quita, el silencio toma una forma diferente, y tod@s se dan cuenta de ello; tod@s se a paran a escuchar.
Necesitamos prestar atención a los muchos silencios en nuestras vidas. Una habitación vacía está viva con un silencio diferente al de una habitación donde alguien se esconde. El silencio de una casa feliz tiene un eco menos oscuro que el silencio de una casa de ira inquietante. El silencio de una mañana de invierno es más agudo que el silencio de un amanecer de verano. El silencio de un paso de montaña es más grande que el silencio de una cañada en el bosque.
Estas no son fantasías, son discriminaciones sutiles de los sentidos. Aunque todas son ausencia de sonido, cada silencio tiene un carácter propio.
Ninguna meditación despeja mejor la mente que escuchar la forma del silencio que nos rodea. Nos enfoca en la delgada línea entre lo que está y lo que no está. Abre nuestro corazón a lo invisible y nos recuerda que el mundo es más grande que los eventos que llenan nuestros días.
En el silencio de esta mañana llega la primera llamada de un pájaro. Escucho atentamente. Atraviesa el silencio como un arco iris a través del amanecer.
Preguntas semilla para la reflexión: ¿Qué te abre la escucha de la forma del silencio? ¿Puedes compartir una historia personal de un momento en que te diste cuenta de diferentes silencios? ¿Qué te ayuda a escuchar profundamente las diferentes formas del silencio?
Kent Nerburn es autor de numerosos libros. Extracto de arriba de 'Pequeñas Gracias'.
Kent Nerburn is an author of numerous books. Excerpt above from 'Small Graces'.
Seed Questions for Reflection
What does listening to the shape of silence open up for you? Can you share a personal story of a time you became aware of different silences? What helps you listen deeply to the different shapes of silence?
Silence can be beautifully feel through meditation & that is inner silence which unfolds our true nature of love fullness, peace & infinity with Joy.. it opens a different dimension which never be matched with external findings of duality rather it give the feeling of wholeness. This inner silence is full with guidance on how to live life better externally by spreading love, peace for every being surrounding us to get actual balance in life in all dimensions.
I live in the woods on a small farm that is sanctuary to our adopted and rescued dogs, horses, cats, ducks, chickens and rooster. I am use to hearing animals communicate with each other and me. One day I was working on a slope putting in native bushes and all of a sudden there was silence. At first I thought our resident red tailed hawk was scouting the area for his latest dinner. That was not the case. I listened more carefully and instead of a sound, I felt a presence. It was louder than a sound and yet no sound at all. I turned around and 3 feet away from me was standing a beautiful 3-4 year old doe deer. I sat and admired her and spent the next 30 -60 minutes with her. Her silent presence was loud enough for me to feel if not hear.
krishnamurti speaks of the space between thoughts. Thats where sacred silence resides, i feel. In one meditation class i was asked to focus on the silence between the in and out breath. where there was no easily identifiable activity.
I my very limited experiences. To listen deeply in order to "experience", not "hear", silence is to have the capacity to stop and observe with complete objectivity. No longer creating conditions nor empowering conditions to arise. It is bare observation that is able to sense without grasping as what is sensed manifests and dissolves.
Silence does not arise, it is present, what arises is my capacity to experience without interruption.
When there is a pause, in this silence my senses awake...I listen more deeply to hear the planet's song...there is always movement, so soft that it is beyond human perception, but it can be felt...as though listening with one's skin, and this listening will reveal a song, somewhere...
Thank you Kent. This is so beautiful. I look forward to reading it again and again. Like silence, your written words are nuanced and give me pause for reflection.
The brain is a physical perception center designed to inform by capturing boundaries and identifying patterns within them. The absence of vibrations within the human perceptible auditory range is generally defined as silence. Per this, silence is but a gap, an auditorily imperceivable gap.
The author, I think, speaks of a different silence. The kind that's not heard, it's not even felt. For its not what the brain can know, it's that which engulfs. The kind that's not born in those gaps, it's born in the freedom of acceptance. The kind that does not have a listener, all it has is love. The kind that just IS.
For them in the prairies, their body, mind, and intellect work seamlessly to the rhythm of the wind. So much so there is no 'wind and them' --the 'wind is them'.
Christmas Eve
Tonight of all nights I appreciate silence. Though I suspect much of the Christmas story and message is mythical, there seems to be a tiny kernel of truth in it. What it is I'm not sure. If we could explain it, then the universe is in a lot of trouble, I suspect, if its wisdom can be comprehended by the bipeds currently scurrying around a minor planet on the edge of a nondescript galaxy.
No, I'm not putting us down. We're just not finished yet, it seems. Nothing wrong with acknowledging that.
Christmas. What is it, really? A dear friend implies it's all about gift. Gift is all about relationships. I give to you, you give to me. Maybe more than that. We receive from the universe. Do we give to the universe? What is the universe other than a bunch of us all connected? Us, meaning you, me, rocks, mountains, planets, crickets, elderberry bushes, the whole nine yards.
I look closely at gift. What does that mean? It gets fuzzy the closer I get to it. Gift isā¦ackno... View full comment
Christmas Eve
Tonight of all nights I appreciate silence. Though I suspect much of the Christmas story and message is mythical, there seems to be a tiny kernel of truth in it. What it is I'm not sure. If we could explain it, then the universe is in a lot of trouble, I suspect, if its wisdom can be comprehended by the bipeds currently scurrying around a minor planet on the edge of a nondescript galaxy.
No, I'm not putting us down. We're just not finished yet, it seems. Nothing wrong with acknowledging that.
Christmas. What is it, really? A dear friend implies it's all about gift. Gift is all about relationships. I give to you, you give to me. Maybe more than that. We receive from the universe. Do we give to the universe? What is the universe other than a bunch of us all connected? Us, meaning you, me, rocks, mountains, planets, crickets, elderberry bushes, the whole nine yards.
I look closely at gift. What does that mean? It gets fuzzy the closer I get to it. Gift isā¦acknowledgement of the basic goodness of life? Maybe? I can't generalize that at a superficial level. I don't live in Iraq. Or Darfur. I dare not speak of the inherent goodness of life to my brothers and sisters who are stuck in a hell not of their choosing.
So coming back then to silence. Mystery. Gift. Love. Acceptance. What is this thing that tugs at my heart and yearns for audience? I don't know. A child. A Child. Every child. Those who are young, and those who live in old and worn out bodies. Those who wait for their first appearance, those who have traveled the human path and have returned to the spirit world. The I AM that we ascribe to God? Perhaps that's what I hear in the silence. The voice of "God", spoken from the heart of every child, human and otherwise, throughout the universe, singing the song of "I AM." Dancing the dance. Trying to make eye contact with each of us.
I'm very grateful for the gift of presence that some dear friends have given. You know who you are. I look forward to that gift of presence from those of you I haven't met yet. You know who you are, too, even if I don't.
I love the mirror dance of I AM/YOU ARE.
Goodnight, now. May silence find you and embrace you. May mystery's song lure you onto strange and wonderful paths and dance with you. Hide full comment
If I listen from duality, every moment of silence is different and temporary, terminated by some sound or different silence, and it's only up to me if I avoid (and suffer), or embrace and enjoy them. In a larger view, the infinite silence which contains and allows everything to take place within it is not disturbed by any of those, just as infinite space is not disturbed by the transient stars, planets, or clouds of matter appearing within it. Our bodies and egos may be afraid of being lost in that space, but in reality we cannot be anywhere else, and the fear is only the illusion of being something other, or separate. And so it is with silence...
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. Therer 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 sayi... View full comment
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. Therer 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 minsdfulness 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 openess, clarity and silence! This is the way of being.
Namaste!
Jagdish P Dave Hide full comment
Now living near the ocean, i hear a completely different silence than during my childhood in the mountains. At the beach, theĀ silence is teeming with activity. Thereās the ever so slight pause at the crest and the trough of the crashing waves, that momentary pause, like at the top and bottom of our breath. And that space is often filled by the sound of the waves further out, building the amplitude for their turn to crash. As well as the birds taking advantage of the goodness of the crashing waves. There is so much depth of sound in what I first perceive as silence.
What comes to mind is Thomas Keating's quote: "Silence is God's first language, and all the rest is a poor translation." I relate to listening to silence -- I don't know about listening to the shape of silence. For me, silences are part of environments, and silences differ depending on the environment they are part of and they can differ very much. Regarding a time I became aware of different silences is when I was in tense silence, ie the silence in a very tense situation, which felt suffocating, compared to peace silence, ie the silence of a peaceful situation, which felt enlivening and joyous. What helps me listen deeply to the different silences is my valuing silences, knowing there are many different silences, knowing the silences say much, and knowing the silences are what is being expressed just as much as the words or sounds and may be saying more about what is happening than the words being expressed.
BS
Barbara SchuttMay 16, 2023
Thank you, David, I love this response. Yes, different types of silences for sure. Awkward, uncomfortable silence, the calm peaceful and soulful silence, the tense silence; they are all very different.
The silence between the sounds, between breaths is where we should focus during meditations. I hear a bird sing with my eyes closed and then wait for another between the silence. I have chimes outside my window that break the silence. Just stopping to listen to the silence throughout the day and being in the moment is difficult at times but can bring such peace.
SA
SamanthaMay 16, 2023
Yes taking the breath and being present, it comforts me to know I am not alone in doing this.
