From the ListenTruly.com Blog
How Silence Serves As Your Ultimate Healing GroundThursday, August 23, 2018
by Mubeena, Founder at ListenTruly.com
Silence is golden and it shines through when you are ready for heightened awareness. Silence in its very nature is the healing ground that is accessible to anyone. If we get to know what it is and how it serves us, we would use it more often and discover who we really are.
The lack of noise is desperately taken as a cue to begin feeling restless, awkward, uncomfortable, bored, anxious or depressed.
Silence often means there’s ‘nothing going on’ and most people avoid it. In an elevator you’ll find them either looking up at the lights flickering through each floor or down at their phones. Filling silence is what we do to get by each day. Why is the deafness in silence so intimidating?
One of the most frequent questions I get asked about the way I practice listening is “So what happens when I have nothing to say and there’s this awkward silence?” You’d think the answer is pretty straightforward. People expect me to say that I try to fill this awkward silence so that my client could get back to being comfortable again.
The real answer is, I encourage my clients to face this silence and embrace it with the depths of their being.
Spiritual masters have taught the benefits of silence and stillness for hundreds of years in every tradition. They offer prayers, meditation and healing using silence as the preferred medium of transmission to the divine. I personally find silence to be cleansing and I often use it as a reset button.
It is the precise nature of silence that makes it a firm healing ground. Here are some of my personal reflections on the way I perceive silence.
I believe these traits of silence make it a natural tool that’s freely accessible at will when you need relief. Being aware of these characteristics right now will help you connect with silence when you choose to channel it.
Silence Underlies Everything
The first feature that comes to mind when I think of silence is the most fundamental. We think of silence as a pause before hitting the play button again. But I look at silence as the true nature of what underlies everything we say, do or feel. It is silence that allows words, music and noise to pop out and be heard the way they were intended. Without silence there is no music and without stillness there is no movement. And if there were, we wouldn’t perceive it so. Knowing that silence underlies everything not only builds an everyday appreciation for sound. It provides self-awareness that silence exists, persists and is eternally available to return to. When there’s nothing or nobody around and you need to reach out, make silence your best friend and go inward. It offers a limitless amount of space, time and depth that can be utilized to reclaim your power.
It’s Thoughtless and Formless
Spiritualists want to be in company of ultimate reality. If you can imagine a thoughtless, formless, empty, eternal space (or non-space), then you have touched the tip of what silence paves the way to. Silence is the armor the mind can wear in the battle against millions of thoughts that pass through and affect our psyche. Stillness is the medium spiritualists use to cultivate a thoughtless mind. For ordinary folk, actively seeking silence enables us to be thoughtless and experience no limits for a few seconds. Formlessness is the true self and embodies the truth that we are not separate from each other. Silence gives us that inkling.
Free from Stimuli and Response
Yes, silence seems to be so very boring. But a restless mind is always looking for what’s next and needs to be artificially stimulated. The body needs movement, air and sensation. The brain needs coffee, pills and food. The mind needs thoughts, beliefs and ideas. Its no secret that these stimuli provide enjoyment and fixes to keep you busy, productive and satiated. Their job is to keep you away from silence, stillness and solitude. I’ve come to realize that silence is free from any stimuli and response. It just is. It requires no stimulus to stay in motion and neither does it respond to noise. This is the definition of ‘dead’ but it is also the definition of higher consciousness. This awareness keeps knee-jerk reactions at bay.
Eternally Permanent
When I observe silence, I revere its eternally permanent nature. It endures during life, death and everything in between. Embracing the silence in each moment brings in the realization of the temporary nature of material things, physical life, challenges and achievements. Nothing stays stable for very long. A winning streak does not stay forever and neither does a losing one. Each phase begins only to end and new cycles constantly emerge, be it in sport, business, the stock market or anything that takes form. The universe lived before we took form and our planet will stand strong long after we’re gone. Silence is what is permanent and is the gateway to experiencing never-ending consciousness in the moments we choose. The next time you face a disappointment, a loss, an angry incident choose silence. Then allow it to help you truly know the impermanence of your situation.
Gateway to Your Identity
For most urban dwellers identity is a matter of where you were born, what you do for a living, what your passions are, who you’re married to, what you own, or some such notion supplied by the outer world. If you want to know who you truly are, then going inner is paramount whenever you’re ready. This is a tricky concept because I’m speaking of self-awareness beyond the outer layers. You can be aware of yourself on many levels including the physical, mental, personality, habitual, preferences, etc. But the real game starts when you become aware of the fact that you are awareness itself. We are the only species proven capable of thinking about our thoughts and knowing what awareness is. Unfortunately this capability is not acted upon as much and not encouraged as part of our worldly education. To get in touch with your real self, practicing silence is essential. The stillness gives rise to the idea that you are a spiritual being undergoing a human experience.
Summary of Article
The Big Ideas
01. Age Old Knowledge
Spiritual masters have taught silence and stillness for hundreds of years in every tradition as the preferred medium of transmission to the divine.
02. Natural Armor
Silence is the armor the mind can wear against millions of thoughts that pass through. Silence brings in the realization of the temporary nature of all things.
03. Aware of Awareness
Silence works when you become aware of the fact that you are awareness itself. Stillness let’s you know that you are a spiritual being having a human experience.