Silence is golden, my friends (GUEST BLOG)
Hello you rat racers.
“Silence is truth. Silence is bliss. Silence is peace. And hence silence is self.”
- Ramana Marharshi
My name is Jenn and I am the second platypus guest-writing for Amy this month as she busies herself with another exciting project. This is my very first crack at blog writing and I am super excited to 'give it an old college try'.
I’ve decided to write about silence. Wait, don’t leave yet. It’s not as boring as it sounds. I promise! So what is it about silence that we find so intimidating? So unappealing and unpalatable? So frightening? Why do we have an incessant need to fill in the gaps of conversation with more words? Or seemingly have an inability to drive in the car without turning on the radio? Who or what are we afraid to meet in that silence? Or have you ever even questioned it? If not, now might be a good time. Feel free to set your phone down, or close your laptop, and really ponder these questions before continuing on - just as my sweet pup Miley is doing in the photo below. And a gentle suggestion… ponder in silence!
For many people the thought of abiding in silence for a few hours (or heck even a few minutes) is akin to a certain kind of hell. Am I right? I’ll bet most of you didn’t even do the brief exercise suggested above. And I can’t blame you really. A few short years ago I used to abhor silence. Being silent felt to me like a punishment and I likened it to a colossal waste of time.
That is, until I did my first 5-day silent mediation retreat in 2016 and fell in love with silence. Now I see silence entirely differently and cannot imagine navigating ‘La Vida Loca’ without periodically taking a ‘time-out’ to retreat and explore more fully the never-ending silent depths of my own being. Retreats are a gift to yourself and a rare opportunity to give yourself completely to that under-appreciated, still place inside that is available in every moment - yet somehow often evades detection by our busy, overly conditioned minds. It is important to note that my love of silence didn’t happen in an instant, but rather I cultivated it through a continued exploration of and devotion to it. And you can too!
For those of you well-acquainted with silence, you will completely understand why I’m a fan. For those not-yet-acquainted, you might think I am delusional! This is something you have to check out and discover for yourself and it requires a healthy dose of both patience and persistence. Silence is like a deep, deep listening without all the usual distractions that are part-and-parcel of our everyday lives. And in this silence, if you can tolerate it long enough, insights and answers might start to appear. Insights that would have been next to impossible to realize if you continued to obsessively fill in the gaps with chatter and noise. To say silence is magical would be an understatement. To say it is ‘boring’ would be wholly inaccurate!
Leading up to my first retreat I experienced much anxiety. What do you mean I cannot read or listen to music? And no cell phones?! How will I function without Google, email, or text messaging? And then, of course, the catastrophic thoughts. What if there is an emergency at work and they need to get in touch with me? Or, worse yet, what if a loved one falls ill or, God forbid, dies, and I cannot be reached? Or my house blows up and the neighbours can’t reach me? Or sweet Miley (the cute cocker spaniel in the photo above) gets hit by a bus? Or a tragedy such as 9-11 or Hiroshima befalls the world? Well you get the point. The mind starts to go nuts thinking about all the things that could go wrong, whilst nary a thought is given to all that could go right. I was so busy anticipating all that I believed the silence would “take”, that I never once considered what the silence might “give”. Side note - I am pleased to say that work continued on just fine without me, my house didn’t blow up, nobody died, and there were no world catastrophes while I was ‘retreating’!
So what exactly did the silence give me you might ask? Peace of mind. Clarity. Intense calm and serenity. A nervous system reboot. The ability to sit next to (or even eat a meal with) a complete stranger and feel completely at ease with the enveloping silence. Insights. A front row seat to the intricate workings of my mind. Increased self-awareness. A love of meditation. And I could keep going. Perhaps the biggest gift from the silence has been the ability to completely inhabit a moment and fully ‘be’ in the moment without getting sucked into the dramas of the past or future. I found strengths and resources inside myself that I had wasted many years looking for in the busyness of my external world. To be perfectly honest, it is not always easy sitting in silence with one’s deluded mind and examining one’s own thought patterns but, a few years and five retreats later, I can say that these experiences have been of immeasurable value to me and, *gasp*, have even been enjoyable!
So the next time you get the urge to fill a silence with noise or busyness, take a step back and ask yourself why? You might be surprised at how this simple question can lead to a treasure-trove of insights about yourself and your mind - a subtle doorway to the exploration of your true nature. If you are interested in exploring silence further by partaking in a silent retreat, here are two that I can personally vouch for: With Marie-Sylvie (offering retreats in Arnprior, Ontario) and Adyashanti (offering retreats in the US and Europe). For those really brave souls, there are even 10-day intensive Vipassana retreats being offered all over the world.
The great Sufi mystical poet, Rumi, summed up silence perfectly:
“When I am silent, I fall into that place where everything is music.”
Go ahead, find the music. This guest-blogger dares you!
From one quiet-loving person to another, I am glad that we can appreciate silence together. I hope you enjoyed this dispatch, and have a peace-filled week!
Until next Sunday,
The Guest Dispatcher Jenn, on behalf of the Earnest Platypus