The sweet sound of silence
“Because of silence, everything exists. The music you heard this morning came to you out of silence, and you heard it because you were silent, and it went beyond you in silence. Only we don’t listen to the silence because our ears are full of the chatter of the mind”
Silence is my companion. How about you? When was the last time you were silent for several minutes at a time? No music, no television, no outside noise?
In my clinical practice, I always invite clients to become aware of what is entering their bodies through ALL of their sensory organs - eyes, ears, mouth, skin, nose.
This has been my medicine these days 🎶 I hope you enjoy it as much as I do
https://open.spotify.com/track/6MFnu3SPfdtmdUo8p2kvb0?autoplay=true
We compose our body/minds with life-making material from the environment through food we eat, sounds we hear, aromas we smell, imagery and light we see and climates we expose our skin to. All of these sensory stimuli that enter us need to be processed and “digested,” much as our food does. Prana Vata governs the perception of sensory input, while Samana Vata rules their assimilation. The job of agni - also known as our digestive capacity - is to digest every stimuli, in other word, to digest life in general !
I don’t believe our body/minds are built for the level of sensory stimulation that surrounds us - especially noise in the context of this paper. While some practice intermittent food fasting to give their digestive system a rest, it seems urgent to me to rehabilitate intermittent silence in our lives to take care of our nervous system and overall health.
Escaping from the city noise may give you a temporary relief from unpleasant external sounds. But soon enough, even in the most quiet countryside, you will have to tend to your inner cacophony.
“With eyes closed, removed from external distraction, a state of wakeful relaxation may easily be cultivated. Yet, left to its musings, it is common for the mind to experience a relentless stream of evaluative thoughts, emotions, or feelings without much effort. Given the heavy demand of modern life on cognitive load, managing the onslaught of ongoing sensory events and improving efficiency of mental processing is of high concern. Tranquility and stillness of mind, as described in the Buddhist Nikāyas, are believed to reflect a natural settling of thoughts and emotions, in which there is stability of attention, sensory clarity, and equanimity of affect and behavior. ”
This is not a meditation challenge but an invitation to practice stillness & silence in your day to day, to consciously abstain from consuming sounds, to calm and focus the mind, piercing the veil of thoughts, in order to arrive at the place of peace and harmony which exists deep within each of us. It is thus in silence that real and lasting healing takes place.
Cultivating silence isn't just about keeping quiet. It's knowing when to speak.
Do you seem to require an incredible amount of external support to perform basic functions ? Let me explain Ayurveda to you , I promise it will change your life & perspective forever !