All Talk of Silence Is Not Silence

“In my experience, a silent lecture is worth more than one with many words and no experience.”

–Lama Yeshe

All talk of silence is not silence. All thought of silence is not silence. All reading of silence is not silence. Try letting the power of silence slow you down to the pause between things and find a suspension there, where you don’t wait for the next thing but rest in the space between.

Start now with each full stop. Let yourself be absorbed by the silence. Between this word and this word. Between this thought and the next. Between this breath and the next. Silence is between and underneath. It is the background, and it is present in the foreground. It is imminent, and it is transcendent. Silence is an ever-present reality.

When all the thoughts in mind fade away, what is left? When you are in deep sleep, what do you hear? When you breathe your last breath what voice do you speak with? When you are ever present to that which is ever present, where is there to get to in a hurry? Let silence slow you to the great pause of presence. Stay there, marinate.

It is not an aloof distraction or retreat from your life to be in silent meditation. On the contrary, it is discovering the source and fountain from which your life springs. It is awakening from the dream that you are the doer. It is breaking the spell of illusion that pledges allegiance to thought and identity. Entering into the reality of silence is discovering that silence is reality.

All talk of it is not it. Let’s be quiet now and sit, and sit, and sit, and listen in stillness for ten thousand eons to this perfect, timeless silence.

Silent Mind

Become aware of the mind. With quiet, listening awareness, turn your attention inward. Listen to the whole mind, allowing it to unfold without focusing on specifics. Gently move your awareness away from the narrow confines of thoughts and abstractions to encompass the broader landscape of the mind.

Let your inner landscape be as vast as the sky. Listen to the spaciousness that exists beyond thoughts, and simply observe the mind with quiet attentiveness.

Do not concern yourself with particular thoughts or sensations. Avoid being pulled into any specific rumination or movement. Every time a thought or sensation comes to the forefront, the expansive awareness contracts, narrowing down into the identification with the thought. Instead, remain open and uncontracted, listening to the mind's spaciousness, staying rooted in the vastness rather than the particulars.

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The recognition of the silent nature of the mind is the end of the separate sense of self. Just as waves rise and fall from the ocean, thoughts rise and fall within the endless realm of the mind, as do all outward experiences. Whether our eyes are open or closed, the nature of the mind remains untainted, the sky remains unphased and the silence is ever undisturbed, calling us to hear all sound as one sound, to recognise that one sound as the song of silence singing its eternal melody in all things.

If one hears this song in one place, one can hear it in all places. Even in the midst of chaos, confusion, war, and division, the peace of silence waves her white flag. At the core of every being, silence peacefully sits, awaiting our recognition as it quietly calls us home. This silence of mind is peace. Silence is happiness. Silence is forgiveness. Silence is reconciliation. A truly silent mind, even if only experienced briefly, is bathed in the waters of these qualities.