"This Week" by the Bahrain Meditation Centre
7th January

SILENCE - Ignored Companion of a Busy Life.

If you can stop occasionally, and fine tune your perception a little, you will find silence is all around you everywhere. It's in the soundless valley in the early morning mists. It's in the stillness of the evening of a long hot summers day. It's in the calm of the ocean before the coming of the storm. It's in the café conversation in the pause between opinions. It's in the deafening, noiseless vastness of the desert. And
it's in that awesome panorama from the mountain peak.

There is the remembered silence of the past, in childhood memories of hide and seek.
There is the projected silence of the future in the possibility of the end of suffering.
There is the silence of the present moment when the history of yesterday and the mystery of tomorrow are dissolved in the practice of being fully present here and now. There is the silence of a city overcome by sleep. And there is the silence of the countryside, when only vines and foxes creep. And if you can rest your attention, on the last peel of the village bell, you can ride the sound as it fades to silence, and you may come to know the deepest inner peace, of which all meditators do tell!

Sweet silence, the ignored companion of a busy life. There is the dead silence in the passing of the soul from yet another body. There is the muffled silence at the heart of the forest as trees stand tall and thick in a conspiracy to absorb any foreign sound. There is a joyful silence when the mind takes a break from its illusions called 'I know' and sees everything exactly as it is, and not by it's label. Look beyond the form and colour in a painting and you may see the silence of the canvas that holds the artists creative noise together. Listen closely to the symphony and you will hear

pure silence between the notes without which the beauty of such music would be lost. Become aware of
the space between your thoughts, go through that space, and you will emerge in to the silence of your being, and be reunited with your power as a master creator. All creationemerges from silence, is shaped by the power of silence and is moved by the silent power of 'being'.

Why do all the mystics and yogis talk so much about silence? Why do they make so much
sound about the soundless? Because they discover that only in silence can everything that has true and eternal value be known. In silence they see the original and singular cause of all action, and how the root of all things comes from 'no thing'. In silence they are reunited with the consciousness of the unity of all things, in all time, and in all space. In silence they can float any question out into the ocean of their inner silent emptiness and know, with absolute unwavering faith, that the answer will return to find them, no matter what may pe-occupy their mind. And they remind us that only when our whole being is 'in silence' can our spiritual heart receive and absorb the light and love of the Source - the power of the silent One. In that same profoundly silent state, they tell us, we may rediscover and be moved by your own latent benevolence towards all creatures great and small. Sweet silence. Do you know silence? Have you felt its sweetness? Do you know your own silent self beyond noisy thinking patterns, beyond the crashing waves of emotion , beyond the invading forces of a world that is addicted to sound? Are you addicted to sound?

So few have been into their silence and returned with it's power and its fragrance to hush a noisy world. Would you value the ability to enter such an inner space where all is available to the searching soul, where all that you yearn for can be found in full, in an instant? In the silence of the heart of you, everything that you are, and everything that you have, is known and felt to be pure and incorruptible. That 'everything' is love, it is light and it is power. All that you have been taught to identify with and pursue in the world is then seen for what it is - illusion and delusion.

Step away from the world 'out there', step away from the world that is 'on your mind',step away from the world that has shaped the story of your life, step away from your story, step away from all worldly desire, your day-to-day cleverness and every urge to judge another, and you step through the doorway into the deepest peace and the place where all becomes clear. Silence is pure peace. Silence sees with pure vision.

Step into your self, into your eternal silent self, and know your self … again. Step into the light of your heart, your silent heart, and know the light that can never be extinguished … again. Let go and step into the boundariless, infinite space that exists forever behind your busy mind, and know what it is to just 'be' … again.

Question: Why do you think the awareness of silence and the feeling of stillness are so empowering?
Reflection: If you cannot hear my silence you will not hear my words – what does this mean?
Action: Create Space and Time - In your home create a space, a corner, perhaps a room, that will be your silent space. Then create a regular time you will 'go to' and 'be in' that space and practice stilling your mind without force.
Om Shanti