Silence!

Silence!

By Erick Lima

Lock away a musician in a soundproof room, and he will hear the rhythm of his heart and the flow of his blood. A man enters the mountain hermitage and finds he cannot escape the noise of his incessant thoughts. Anyone who has spent time in a quiet retreat or monastery knows the truth about silence: it roars!

No sound trumps silence. All noises arise and fade into it. The geese that fly in the sky leave no trace. The alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end.

The deeper we travel, the less we have the need for thoughts and words. Too many words is a hex that we cast on each other. It kills the mood, prevents life from developing as it should. The solution is not to take a vow of silence—like the monk but to abstain from unnecessary speech and action. Tell a joke when moved by the powers that be but never as a mechanical action.

This is not talking and not talking. Silence accommodates both; it is stillness, removing the secondary or tertiary line of commentary about your actions and deeds. Let go! No need to interfere with your life—let it happen to you. Put your faith in that which is more intelligent and massive than yourself.

A person slanders or cheats you? The powers that made you shall take care of him as well as you. The extent to which you can surrender control of your life is the extent to which you can enjoy it.

Our attitude to what comes our way is more important than what does. Those who win the lottery and those who become wheelchair-bound return to the same baseline of happiness within two years. Those who have found peace within themselves are the inheritors of the only lasting fortune in this world.

What else does silence have to say? Curiosity and openness. No longer does everything have to be the way you think it is. You are now concerned with the welfare of all that enters your vicinity. Listening teaches you to take yourself less seriously. Your actions and thoughts move from hazy and vague ethereal forms to crystalline precision.

The cornerstone is listening. Do not attach personal ownership to your thoughts. They occur to you and you are not always in complete control. Learn to observe. Start with others. See how they walk, think, hope, dream, and spend their days. Listen to what they say and what they don’t say.

Then apply those skills to yourself. Observe the you that you call you as if it was one of your friends. This creates a gap, a distance between the personal and the observer. There is relaxation. Things are no longer a matter of life and death. Become at peace with your being.

Silent and content. Being okay with not knowing what will happen. The greatest gift we can offer each other is this form of relaxation. You are here and I am here. I do what I want and you do what you want. No problems, no disturbances. Do not rally against right and wrong. Listen to the perfume of silence, which is omnipresent and omniscient. You cannot push it away. You can only make yourself believe it is not there.

The End