True Silence Really Means Going Deep-Daily Meditation 4.10

Today’s quotation:

True silence really means going deep within yourself to that place where nothing is happening, where you transcend time and space.  You go into a brand new dimension of nothingness.  That’s where all the power is.  That’s your real home.  That’s where you really belong, in deep Silence where there is no good or bad, no one trying to achieve anything.  Just being, pure being. . . .Silence is the ultimate reality.-Robert Adams

Today’s Meditation:

Silence isn’t my best friend.  I love it, but I also love music, so I always face a bit of a dilemma when I’m alone:  silence or music?  I am good at avoiding crowded, noisy places, but when I can’t avoid them, I’m always amazed that so many people would subject themselves to such loud and stressful situations.  I went to dinner at a restaurant because my wife’s employer was hosting it, and I was shocked at how much noise there was.  We had to yell to talk to each other at the same table, and it was highly stressful and quite unpleasant.

But that’s the opposite of silence.  When I’m alone in a quiet place, the silence is like a comfortable blanket that surrounds me and keeps me warm and cozy.  It allows my brain to slow down, for it doesn’t have to monitor and respond to vast amounts of incoming information.  My attention isn’t being pulled from here to there and back again, and I can be without having to filter noises and choose between them, which I’m going to acknowledge and which I’m going to ignore.

Most of us are so used to noise that we no longer notice it.  And most of us are such strangers to silence that we have no idea just how beneficial it can be to us.  Perhaps it will be necessary for us to force ourselves to experience some silence to find out what it can do for us so that we can try to make it an active and essential part of our lives.  Even five or ten minutes of silence can be healing, though the more we can carve out, the better.

I always face the dilemma of music versus silence, but as I grow older, I choose silence much more often because I’ve experienced the benefits and beauty of silence.  I know that while I enjoy music and it helps me think, silence is also enjoyable, providing a beautiful balance to music, noise, and sound in general.  Silence adds something extraordinary to my life, and I want to enjoy something extraordinary.

Questions to consider:

Why do so many people reject silence in favor of noise?

What are some benefits of silence?

How might we go about finding silence in our lives?

For further thought:

Silence is, for me, a fountain of healing that makes my life worth living.  Talking is often a torrent for me, and I need many days of silence to recover from the futility of words.-Carl Gustav Jung

If you missed our last Daily Meditation, it is right here.