Can I meditate for silence?
As the founder of the Silent Leadership Institute, I receive this question A LOT and understandably. However, I must say that silence cannot be “forced”. It cannot be sought after. And it cannot be brought about by thought. Therefore, I am sorry, it cannot be meditated upon. End of blog.😆
When silencing the mind comes from the pursuit of something, or some motivation coming from an ideal, for example, “a silent mind is the magical state by which all is understood”, I wonder if the pursuit of a such an ideal silent at all? You have an image of what a silent mind is and you go after that image. “Going after” is an action based on motivation. An act based on motivation employs the activity of thought. If so, then silence is nowhere to be found. Because meditating for silence implies a purpose: for silence. Where lives purpose, lives noise and therefore, that noise, which is the pursuit of silence denies the very thing that is silent - it is the resisting force of silence itself. Silence comes about when there is no pursuit of anything. There is no motivation, nor is there any desire to achieve or be silent. Silence comes about when the brain is not recording experiences or trying to remember the past. In other words, if your actions in this current time are based on some learning from the past which is recorded and reconstructed in the now, then there is no silence. This reconstruction, which requires time to process (even though it happens in an instant), is a movement away from what is. As long as there is movement of thought, there cannot be silence. When this movement has ended, then the unnamable comes about. It is like a nearby stream of water. One may be told that there is a stream nearby, and therefore, you focus your attention on trying to hear the stream. What you are essentially doing In your mind is first reconstructing the sound from a previously-recorded sound of a stream and trying to use your senses to create a “match” of that reconstructed sound, until you actually hear the stream. Your mind, busy processing that match, misses the whole beauty of silence. But to be completely still, without the movement of thought, you become the sound of the stream, you become the chirping of the birds… you become the breeze that caresses your ears. Does it make sense?
So, no practice nor discipline can bring about a still mind. The writer practiced meditation for 20 years before stupidly realizing that kind of meditation was none other than a self-deceiving activity that does very little but perhaps improve a little bit of concentration (which I can do by reading a book), and staying calm for 10 minutes every day before going back to a reality which is constantly full of noise. You might disagree with me and many so-called experts do! I hope you do, too because whenever there is disagreement, there is something worth questioning - there is resistance and resistance is a force brought about by thought. Now please read this next sentence, attentively. What I have found is that forcing the mind to be made still when the mind itself is already noisy will result in a “better noisy mind”. But by understanding the limitations of thought, by being aware of your reactions and feelings and the movement of thought, without the interference of memory, then peace and beauty comes to the mind.
Peace and light,
GC
#peace #silence #resistance