HAVE YOU “OBSERVED” SILENCE?
by Santhosh kumar kana
“Observe silence” is a common instruction which all students are familiar with. I am not talking about that here. I am using “observe” to mean “to watch, to look at”. So the title should be read as “Have you watched or looked at silence?”
The whole universe abounds in silence. Noise or sound arises from silence and dissolve back into silence like the bubbles that appear on water and disappear into water. Look at silence as you look at a tree, a flower or a river. You will find that there is nothing except silence. It is not something to be created. It is there always and it IS. What we should do is to observe how it digests all the noise and sound we create.
When you read a book, do you complain that you are unable to concentrate because there is so much noise around? Do you know what is happening here? You are trying to create silence and it is a futile effort. If you are silent, ie, if your mind is silent, then you are one with the silence outside.
It is said that once Swami Vivekananda complained to his guru Sri Ramakrishna that he was unable to concentrate in meditation because there was so much of noise from a factory nearby. The reply his guru gave him is remarkable:
“concentrate on that noise”
Words have been invented to discover silence. But instead of discovering it, we have created more noise with words. In fact, words can’t capture the depth and infinity of silence. But we have no other option. So where we have to use two words, let us not use twenty.
If you discover this silence, it refreshes you and makes you more brave. It helps your energy concentrate on the work you do. That is how it improves concentration. And naturally it improves your memory. Wise men say that if you can remember the words you spoke all the day before you go to bed at night, you are really alive.
Our mind captures an incident and saves in our computer(mind) as memory. Remember, life is just before you, happening each and every moment. If you don’t miss the present moment, you can “observe” the silence around and only then you discover what life is.
***********************
by Santhosh kumar kana
“Observe silence” is a common instruction which all students are familiar with. I am not talking about that here. I am using “observe” to mean “to watch, to look at”. So the title should be read as “Have you watched or looked at silence?”
The whole universe abounds in silence. Noise or sound arises from silence and dissolve back into silence like the bubbles that appear on water and disappear into water. Look at silence as you look at a tree, a flower or a river. You will find that there is nothing except silence. It is not something to be created. It is there always and it IS. What we should do is to observe how it digests all the noise and sound we create.
When you read a book, do you complain that you are unable to concentrate because there is so much noise around? Do you know what is happening here? You are trying to create silence and it is a futile effort. If you are silent, ie, if your mind is silent, then you are one with the silence outside.
It is said that once Swami Vivekananda complained to his guru Sri Ramakrishna that he was unable to concentrate in meditation because there was so much of noise from a factory nearby. The reply his guru gave him is remarkable:
“concentrate on that noise”
Words have been invented to discover silence. But instead of discovering it, we have created more noise with words. In fact, words can’t capture the depth and infinity of silence. But we have no other option. So where we have to use two words, let us not use twenty.
If you discover this silence, it refreshes you and makes you more brave. It helps your energy concentrate on the work you do. That is how it improves concentration. And naturally it improves your memory. Wise men say that if you can remember the words you spoke all the day before you go to bed at night, you are really alive.
Our mind captures an incident and saves in our computer(mind) as memory. Remember, life is just before you, happening each and every moment. If you don’t miss the present moment, you can “observe” the silence around and only then you discover what life is.
***********************
4 comments:
a remarkable write-up. people now are so busy in their monotonous lives that they are forgetting the essence of silence...this article of yours has personally impressed me and i will surely give it a thought. and for everyone who reads it, i think it surely will be useful and as they say
speech is silver
silence is *golden*
good one sandhu,
i like your perspective of silence
especially that silence cannot be created. absolutely true that we can create only noise !! and silence is eternally there and whatever is being created is noise. I enjoyed reading this one on silence.
one doubt arises in my stupid mind now...... if silence is eternal and noise is being created what about the Pranava or AUM . isnt pranava eternal??? how do u compare between pranava and silence.. i am confused!!!.
i loved the way silence is described... silence can take us to inner ourselves and help us identify what we really are ...
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