WHAT IS SILENCE?

I think the time is probably now to actually really understand the significance of silence. Silence as the ingredient or the modality for the well-being of oneself, for every internal process … but we must really understand the word. Let me see whether I can give a series of talks on the need, the demand and the actual property of silence.

On the surface, silence simply means I’m not protesting. Silence simply means I’m accepting without defeating myself. Silence means I am facing. Silence means I am not absent, I’m being present.

I’m saying, at least in my observation, because people do not give themselves enough time for silence or in some sense people are rejecting silence, their own inner silence is being lost … which simply means you are in a state of duress. If you observe, if you are in a state of duress, a state of uncomfortableness or a state of conflict … the first thing missing is silence. And we always relate to it by saying I have no peace … there is no peace, which indicates that we need a state of peace, which means we need a state of silence of the brain for us to be able to meet what we need to meet.

Silence is not the absence of engagement; silence is the dropping of the conflict of engagement. So when I say I’m sitting in silence, I’m sitting in an acceptance of meeting what I need to meet about myself. Like the effort we are undertaking worldwide with all the acharyas is to set up enough spaces in which people can enter silence. It might be for an hour, it might be for two hours … but I want to explain what silence is.

Silence is not about being quiet, silence is an inner space that you come to, that you give yourself when the conflict that we have created in meeting ourselves is dropped.

I almost make peace with my situation. So the meaning of making peace is not to avoid the situation but is in the meeting of the situation.

So to begin, would you consider … could it be that the absence of silence is the breeding of conflict? I can have a disagreement with you but I’m silent about the disagreement, which means to say it’s not that I’m avoiding the disagreement but I’m sitting with it. I am not having a problem with the disagreement, I’m accepting it … this is my truth, I’m silent with it, I’m meeting it.

The effort is that you are able to enter your state of silence, to remain silent with you … which means to come to a peaceful state, to make peace with whatever that is happening with you, in which the conflict of meeting you is dropped. So can I define silence as dropping the conflict of meeting what I need to meet?

I think the highest of all teachings regarding this matter, is the birth of the impregnated state of silence within oneself when one can be silent rightly.

If one is paralysed, it feels like silence but that is not silence. If one is avoiding, it feels like silence. Sometimes when two people are not talking to each other, it looks like silence … no, sometimes you’d rather speak. The more you don’t speak, that becomes something else…

So I want to see whether we can explore and truly understand the real meaning of this word silence. Most often people are not in silence, which means they are lost in thought and they are lost in thought because they are having a conflict in meeting something.

So if I ask, have you become silent with something … like you are an orthopaedic surgeon, I think you cannot be that until you make peace with it. Yes I’m a doctor, this is what I do, this is my profession. If you have a problem, then you are not silent, then there’s a conflict. The silence is – okay this is where I’m at.

So can I say another property of silence is accepting where you are?

I think we have many careless definitions of silence. I think the highest of learning is when you can sit silently in the deepest acceptance of you, your life and what is happening. Sometimes when something happens, you go through the motion why the hell is this happening? Next, how can I avoid this? But somewhere there you will reach a point, yes it is happening; you become silent with what is happening. I think that’s when you actually come into action.

So can I say I need to attain to a state of silence with any issue before I come into action? Silence doesn’t mean resigning. In this context, I’m saying silence means I am in the space of meeting what has to be met.

Can I say that? Because what I am proposing worldwide is to create enough spaces of silence so I can work with you in that silence. I think without the establishment of silence, nothing happens. No matter what we are talking about, it is to reach the point of the acceptance of something. And in that acceptance the silence explodes, in that silence everything happens.

Let’s say, we discuss and you come to understand that in this life my self must die; through the death of my ego, I will wake up to what I can be. The moment you reach the silence of that yes, something happens, now you are about to do it. That means up to that point you are still finding a way to get out. Up to that point, there’s a conflict with it.

Like when a decision is made, when a clarity happens … have you attained to the silence to become successful or is it a conflict; do you still think you can get away without doing it or do you have some kind of dilemma? So silence also means I’m in a space where all of me is meeting all of that.

Now, let me give you an insight; whenever that silence happens, creation explodes.

Like me being with my Guru is a silence, there was a silence the day I met him; this is it, okay and by that the meeting was absolute. There’s no more mind about it, it’s not thinking. You are not thinking about your child, you are not thinking anymore, is it my child? No, you are not thinking about being a mother, so in that space haven’t you become that?

So can I say, we need moments of silence in which the conflict of meeting can be rested, or the goal is to come to silence so the conflict of meeting can end When silence is there, I know I am meeting it.

Like many Masters in the past have chosen this path. Someone like Ramana will say silence is the only way. In Tamil there’s a saying; Sol arai, summa iru. Sol arai; Sol means word, Arai means without, or to cut, Sol arai. summa iru – just simply be. Sol arai, summa iru – which means just to be.

So the question – how deeply have you embraced the state of silence, which leads to a state of acceptance, which leads to the state of meeting, which leads to the waking of doing what has to be done, or how much have you avoided silence? I think silence is the ultimate awakening, when there is no more conflict at all.