Journey into Silence

From Busy Mind to Quiet Mind

In my attempts to quieten my mind and deepen my awareness I used to endeavour to tune into the sensations in the body. I became aware of how these ever changing sensations form a constant backdrop to our outer reality, how our ever changing thoughts and moods have their roots in these ongoing sensations. For instance, sensations of pain and discomfort often underlie negative thoughts or bad moods while sensations of comfort and ease accompany positive thinking and joyful states. No big surprise there!!

Then I became aware that my core intention was crucial - attempting to cling to pleasant sensations and just endure the unpleasant ones as a means of getting beyond them, accomplishes nothing. Being aware of the sensations in the body without being detached, (that is to say without a much deeper focus), was just becoming another avoidance trap - a mind created trick to keep me looking in the wrong direction.

Upon re-reading Eckhart Tolle’s wonderful book Silence Speaks, I finally “got it”; instead of focusing on the ever changing physical sensations – just allow them to BE as they are. Allow them to change at their own rate and focus instead on the stillness, the silence that underlies ALL sensation. It is this silence and stillness that truly brings healing peace. Listening to the silence brings our awareness right here into the present moment because it bypasses the busy intellect – the thinking aspect of us that always wants more. Listening to the subtle almost inaudible sound of our breathing, and then hearing the silence beneath it has a wonderful calming effect on the mind.

There are sounds that evoke silence even in the midst of noise; the distant sound of birdsong, or the tranquil sound of a running brook, the sound of the wind in the trees...... we all have our own favourite sounds that evoke something beyond, something much more vast than the sound itself. These are sounds that open up the space of silence – the ever present silence that is behind the sound – the silence that CONTAINS all sound. That depthless silence is also the silence of our own deepest inner nature. Obviously it’s much easier to “tune into” our inner silence in a place of peace and tranquility. But with practise, these precious moments of inner silence deepen and last longer, opening out to enable us to really touch the Sacred. It’s like the inner silence has many levels to it - initially just a cessation of noisy thoughts, a mental slowing down, then a deeper feeling of stillness that increasingly pervades our body – as if everything within us is slowing down, every fibre of our being is coming to a deeper place of rest. This deeper quietening –this amplified stillness then opens the way to an even deeper sense of the present moment – a sense of the sacred – of love and reverence for all life.

So every time throughout my active day I remember to re-connect to this ever present backdrop of stillness, I sound the words “hush, hush” most compassionately to this busy noisy thought thinking brain – “hush, be calm, just listen to the ever present stillness” and sure enough there is that ocean of peace awaiting.

These periods of lengthening silence also allow me to develop DETACHMENT to all the dramas I see around me especially my own life dramas. I understand so profoundly that where thought goes, energy follows and it’s truly MY CHOICE where I send this energy.

Am I going to amplify some grievance that occurred last year or last week by returning to it again and again in my thoughts? running post mortems on how it should have been or what I could have done/said etc? or instead am I going to stop identifying with that particular drama and give loving attention to the part of me that’s hurting - just holding any wounded part of me in loving presence. This bringing of attention right into the physical pain in the body then quietens the mind even further, bringing it even deeper into a stillness that gives a priceless overview – a deeper perspective of the situation – an ability to see what occurred from a place of calm; of detachment rather than being lost in an emotional/ mental storm.

It has long been recognised among meditation teachers that pain and discomfort within the body cause thoughts to arise in the mind. Of course the mind in its tendency to cling to the negative will endeavour to trick us again and again back into noisy thoughts, back into forgetfulness. With practise we may even be able to laugh at these thoughts that try to bring up some past grievance or some future potential worry – these thoughts that seem to have a momentum of their own. Every time we quieten the thoughts and still the mind, every time we become conscious, we can observe that the thoughts are only arising out of some passing discomfort deep within the body – often just beyond our conscious awareness.

We are all, to a greater or lesser extent, burdened by years of conditioning which cause us to resist and avoid discomfort, to distract ourselves away from pain. This conditioned response strives to keep all discomfort beyond our attention, whether it’s emotional or physical. So when we become sufficiently conscious to make choices - to really connect with what’s happening right now instead of distracting ourselves away into negative thoughts, what happens? We make a much better connection with our physical body; we become much more centred, more calm. We also automatically become so much more present - right here, right now. We can then allow both the discomfort to be present and also connect to the underlying stillness, the silent space in which all creation floats.

So it’s really important to take care of our health – to care for and honour our bodies because our level of physical wellbeing is directly reflected in our mental state. These all occur simultaneously – there really isn’t any chicken and egg scenario.

A very wise guide once said to me “become aware of the quality of peace – let that be your focal point – let the very quality of deep peace enter your physical body and bring profound rest and healing”. I soon came to realise that really feeling this peace within every fibre of my body is completely different to simply “thinking about” what peace means. However to touch those tangible depths of living peace, we are once again confronted by all our resistance. All the countless times in the past when we found ways to distract ourselves AWAY from what’s happening right now – all the old familiar aches and pains that were long ignored, come back looking for attention. It requires a considerable degree of present moment awareness to keep on coming back to what’s happening right now when the storms of previous unfinished business try to blow us off course.

It is in that place of stillness that our hearts can open and we can sink back into our true nature which is so loving and joyful. We become embraced by our own depths. What peace and joy there is within us, always waiting to embrace our tired outer selves.

Becoming silent connects us to our own path through life and to our own unique solutions to the challenges and dilemmas life casts in our path. The “still small voice” increasingly becomes a guiding force. In becoming more in tune with our own intuition, our own inner music, we tune into our true inner nature. This journey into the silence within brings us closer to the same silence that resides in others.

Stillness brings simplicity - a simplicity where we can wean all the clutter out of our lives. All the unnecessary stuff that we THINK we need to make life more convenient, more bearable, more entertaining, more pleasurable – all this stuff that we’re being sold every day with the false promise of MORE, we realise we actually don’t need. The river already knows its way down to the sea, all we have to do it stay present and allow it to follow its natural course.

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