STEP 13 – SILENCE

Speech is silver;  silence is golden

All man’s miseries derive from not being able to sit quietly in a room alone.

- Blaise Pascal

Our ability to sit quietly in a room alone, as Pascal observes, is the cause of much suffering. We live in a busy world constantly bombarded with loud noises. The television or radio has to be on and any pause in conversation is hurriedly filled with more chatter. But observe nature. Trees, plants and grass grow in silence. Clouds move across the sky effortlessly and in silence. Yet for many people, silence is embarrassing, awkward and uncomfortable.

In the post GUIDE TO WHO YOU ARE we shared Judge Troward’s Unity principle which basically states that wherever Spirit is, the whole of Spirit must be because Spirit is wholeness. And because Spirit is omnipresent, which means there is no place it is not, the whole of Spirit must be present in it’s entirety at every point in space at the same time. You are a spiritual being. This means that the whole of Infinite Mind (all wisdom) is present in its entirety at the point of your Mind. Expressed more succinctly, all the answers, guidance, wisdom you will ever need is present within you right now, and all you have to do is access it through silence.

The word silence has been used in this post in preference to the term meditation. For many people, the term meditation raises too many questions. “Which meditation technique is best for me?”, “Is my posture correct?” “Should I be listening to music or have a specific mantra and if so, which music or mantra should I use?”

The word silence doesn’t engage the thinking mind. It doesn’t imply a technique or having to do anything. We are prolific doers and if we use the term meditation, instantly there is a desire to do the right meditation technique, to get the right teacher, to adopt the right posture, and to meditate properly. But as the great yoga master remarked “It is not necessary to tell anyone how to meditate. If he is sincere enough and open enough he will find the way.”

So please adopt whichever practice feels right for you. If you do not regularly meditate, the practice of silence may be easier for you. If you have a meditation practice that helps you, please continue.

The Psalm “Be still, and know that I am God” requires just that. No doing. Just sitting quietly and allowing your incessant thinking mind to quieten and achieve Oneness with Spirit. You don’t have to do anything because Spirit (non-physical) is forever seeking to express its’ wholeness of wisdom, love, peace, joy and abundance, through its physical polar opposite, which is You.

You just have to be still and silent long enough to allow the answers to come through your consciousness in the form of intuition, gut feelings and an absolute knowing that this is the right course of action to take.

There is an ancient Chinese saying -

If a man be absolutely quiet then the heavenly heart will manifest itself.

But it is not easy to be completely quiet because in this state of silence there is no pressure to achieve anything. This goes completely against our normal programming and conditioning. Our left logical brain shouts “Surely, I must have to do something”. No, you don’t. You just have to sit still and in the silence the answers will be found.

Exercise 5

Sitting in silence requires practice and discipline because it is not something we are accustomed to. In silence you do not do or say anything. You just sit still, relax and be receptive. You are like a battery being recharged. A battery just sits, accepts and does nothing. Think of yourself as a battery.
In the beginning, your thoughts will try to convince you that this practice is a waste of time, and that there are more productive things you should be doing. Other unrelated thoughts will also keep popping in and out of your mind. Just sit still and become an observer to all this mental chatter.

How long should you sit in silence?

There is no ‘right’ time. At first you may want to do just a few minutes a day, but as you practice regularly you may find up to 10 or 15 minutes is about right. It may be best not to sit too long because your consciousness will begin to stray. Even being stationary in a traffic jam or at a red light provides the opportunity for a few moments of silence. And don’t worry, the driver behind will always ‘hit his horn’ when it’s time to go! Just sit quietly and pay attention to your in and out breaths as a way to tune into the silence.

In the physical realm, we experience the duality of up and down, hot and cold and light and dark and all the gradations in between. In the absolute realm of Spirit there is just Oneness. Silence is your gateway to tune into this Oneness because there’s only one silence. There are no gradations in silence. If you cut silence in half, you get more silence.

The practice of silence allows you to experience your Oneness with Spirit, rather than just know about it intellectually. And when you experience this Oneness, you will want to make this practice an integral part of daily life.

The next post … THE LAW OF GIVING AND RECEIVING

Tagged with: Blaise Pascal • Clouds • Doers • Grass • Guidance • Infinite Mind • Loud Noises • Mantra • Meditation Technique • Miseries • Pause In Conversation • Posture • Preference • Principle • Silence Is Golden • Troward • Unity • Wholeness • Wisdom • Yoga Master

Filed under: 17 Steps to a Magnetic Lifestyle

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