Thoughts

Silence.

Written by Andō McDonnellWellbeing

The true nature of the mind is silence. This is natural meditation, it’s what we are.

Silence.

I sit here at 5:15am, writing to you, in the dark hours before dawn, a sliver of moon is rising, just visible through the trees.

I’ve been up since 4:30am.

I love this time of day. The deep silence of it.

The mind is quiet, after a night of deep, restful sleep. I sit, centred at the heart, sitting quietly in awareness.

Each day I rise at 4:30am, and sit, outdoors, in silence, with my partner, sipping fresh coffee. After maybe 20 to 30 minutes, I read a few paragraphs from a spiritual text, or a poem, from one tradition or another.

After these two paragraphs, again we enter the silence.

Just let the mind fall into silence. This is enough.
Papaji

Such peace is found.

Jesus Christ spent much time in silence and in solitude. He knew the power of such times, letting the noise of the world drop away.

Search your hearts and be silent.
Psalms 4:4

Then we become more clearly aware of the noise of the mind. But still we can find peace.

When we have noise in our inner world, it comes from the mind. We can make the mistake of believing it comes from our outer world. But it arises when we dwell on events of the past, or worry about the future. When we come to realise that both are not only beyond our control, but don’t even actually exist, we come to peace.

Silence is a source of great strength.
Lao Tzu

Even in this present moment, we can find peace, without dwelling on possibilities arising, which as close as a second away in the future, are still in the future, and completely imagined.

Let us not live in imagined worlds, but in the truth of the moment. Let us know in our hearts, what a miracle our life is.

Why is talking so much easier than listening? Why do we hide in the noise, when our heart calls us into silence?

As I look up from the keyboard, I am breathless at the moon and the stars. I gaze at them each day, yet always they are seen with fresh eyes.

Have you ever heard a shooting star? In the silence of a dark night, I have, it’s the most awesome thing.

Silence is the language of God. All else is poor translation.
– Rumi

If you’re seeking perfect silence, stop looking right now. Because no such thing exists. I have climbed many mountains, and not one of them is a soundless place.

Not one.

Try Paulo Coelho’s listening exercise, to be found in his book, The Pilgrimage.

“What do you hear?” he asked me.

“Nothing. The silence.”

We are not smart enough to be able to listen to the silence! We are just human beings, and we don’t even know how to listen to our own ramblings.
Paulo Coehlo, The Pilgrimage.

I meditate each day around this time, but today, this letter to you is my meditation. Life has become a meditation. But still, early each morning, I spend time in silent sitting.

At zendos, monasteries, chapels and ashrams around the world, people are rising at 3 or 4 am, because at this hour, there is some deeper sense of silence, inner, as well as outer.

On rising, they practice silent sitting, shikantaza. At monaseries and ashrams around the world, there are groups of people sat in the darkness right now, doing just this.

Doing? Nothing. Just being. Sitting. Silently.

Some are meditating, some are pursuing self inquiry, some are contemplating, some are praying. Some are simply sitting, in awareness. This is the ultimate silence.

Sit in silence. Don’t listen, just hear. Let the sounds wash over you. Let go further.

Just hear.

Just be the hearing.

Then, just let there be the sounds.

When there are only the sounds, where are you? Where have you gone? Were you actually there to begin with?

The highest form of Grace is silence.
Sri Ramana Maharshi

Jupiter and Venus are rising now, a strong presence in the sky. A cockerel crows. Then another, and another, echoing across the darkness. Tree rats rustle in the branches behind me. Soon, the dogs will join the chorus.

I remain silent. In this silence, I make a discovery.

I don’t exist.

But that’s a whole other article.

Be silent and listen, Truth is in the silence.
Written by
Andō McDonnell
Poet and writer.
Ando is a talented and active writer - a woman who spent many years living in deep retreat from the world. Her poems are about silence, stillness, the research of inner peace, and the human relationship with nature. She shows us that a journey of self-discovery can be described with just a few words at a time: and the result can be beautiful and intimate poetry.

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