The Unthinkable Silence - Why Most People Are Afraid of It

Most people are actually afraid of silence. Let’s explore the nature of silence.

What is silence? Is it some mystical power? There is silence between two sounds. There is a silence between two thoughts. There is a silence between two notes on a page of music. There is silence after the storm. There is a silence in the middle of a desert.

Is silence sitting down and scheduling some time to focus on your breathing? Forcing your mind to be silent - is that silence? The fact is you focus on your breathing, which means you are not silent. Concentration is not silence. Silence can only come inwardly when you are no longer pursuing. That is, you are not forcing anything, you are not seeking anything, you are not recording anything. The moment there is a hint of a motive, then silence is nowhere to be found. To sit to focus has a motive.

In silence, is it possible to see something extraordinary - something beyond? Perhaps, but again to assume you will is a motive. To sit to look for something extraordinary is a motive. You are “looking” for something which means you are not observing what is silence, which is a mind that is completely still. If you are looking for something beyond the window, you will miss what is important. Stillness lies not beyond the window, but is the window itself.

“Fact is, we are afraid of silence. We are afraid to be still. We are afraid to be nothing. And as such, we endlessly fill any space where emptiness lives with thoughts, words, sensations, hopes, dreams. Therefore, we neither see nor hear silence even though it is always there.”

When the mind, the brain itself, is without movement, that is when it is no recording of information in any way, in that very depth of silence which cannot be cultivated, practiced, forced in any way, maybe there is an observation of something quite incredible.

But mostly, what you will find when your mind is completely silent is that there is no one doing the watching. There is no entity that is collecting experience. There is no activity of the ego-self or the “center”. Such a silence is possible when the mind is naked - without clothes. In this way, the mind is free of any desire or pursuit of anything. It is untouched. It is free.

Love and light,

-GC