Silence

Practicing silence means making a commitment to take a certain amount of time to simply be. Experiencing silence means periodically withdrawing from the activity of speech. It also means periodically withdrawing from surfing the internet, following social media, watching television, listening to music, making small talk or even reading a book. 

If we never give ourselves the opportunity to experience silence, this creates turbulence in our internal dialogue. We should set aside a little time every once in a while to experience silence. Or, simply make a commitment to maintain silence for a certain period each day. 

We could do it for two hours, or if that seems a lot, do it for a one-hour period. And every once in a while experience silence for an extended period of time; such as a full day, or two days, or even a whole week on a silent retreat. 

What happens when we go into this experience of silence? Initially our internal dialogue becomes even more turbulent. We feel an intense need to say things. One reaction is go absolutely frantic, the first day or two, when we commit ourselves to an extended period of silence. A sense of urgency and anxiety can suddenly come over us. 

But, as we stay with the experience, our internal dialogue begins to quieten. And soon the silence becomes profound. This is because after a while the mind gives up; it realizes there is no point in going around and around if we the self, the spirit, the choicemakers are not going to speak... period. 

Then, as the internal dialogue quietens, we begin to experience the stillness of the field of pure potentiality. In that field of pure silence is the field of infinite correlation, the field of infinite organizing power, the ultimate ground of creation where everything is inseparably connected with everything else.

We can introduce a faint impulse of intention in this field, and the creation of our desires will come about spontaneously. But first, we have to experience stillness. Stillness is the first requirement for manifesting our desires, in stillness lies our connection to the field of pure potentiality that can orchestrate an infinity of detail for us.

Imagine throwing a little stone into a still pond and watching it ripple. Then, after a while, when the ripples settle down, perhaps we throw another little stone. That’s exactly what we do when we go into the field of pure silence and introduce our intention. 

In this silence, even the faintest intention will ripple across the underlying ground of universal consciousness, which connects everything with everything else. But, if we do not experience stillness in consciousness, if our minds are like a turbulent ocean, we could throw a mountain of rocks into it, and we wouldn’t notice a thing.