Shhhh...

I've always discovered a terrific irony in speaking about silence. Not that I'm much of a pioneer; the irony comes built-in. All I do is remark on it to myself. Yet there it is. 

It's a ploy of spiritual seekers, especially ones who think they have some kind of authority, to remind others un-silently of how they should remain silent about this or that, or remain silent in general. Another typical stance is to solemnly sit with one another and declare out loud how important silence is and how earnestly one is seeking it. There is, in other words, a furtive dishonesty around the whole enterprise of discussing silence which simply has to be listened to to be believed.

I make no apologies for discussing the subject; it is not off-limits, nor should it be avoided. Or used as a means of scolding people for their practice.

Is silence the mere absence of sound? Not quite; because, it turns out in esoteric disciplines, that silence means not just the absence of sound, but specifically, the absence of sounds that might reveal some special secret or make something too obvious; sounds that are considered crude and inappropriate, and so on. In every sense, in other words, the word sound – and the word silence – are taken quite literally. This in the sense that they refer to physical sounds, sounds we can hear with our ears, sounds that form ideas and convey meanings.

This is not the kind of sound or silence I wish to speak of. There is a metaphysical silence; and this silence is not tied to the worldly, earthly, or conventional understandings we have of silence. Not at all. It refers, instead, to a silence that takes place inside being, but outside the world of physics – and a listening that takes place not with the ears or the thoughts that follow them, but with a finally tuned attention that arises in sensation and turns toward feeling.

One can undertake a search for the silence that is naturally present behind all else using these faculties. The organism is designed to come in to an intimate relationship with that silence. That silence, furthermore, lies at the root of creation and can never be removed from creation, in any sense, from any place, at any time.

It is always with us.

Human life obscures this silence. Without a sense of presents, the silence disappears – it’s absorbed into the background simply because it is silent. We only pay attention, it seems, to things that make noise of one kind or another. 

Yet it's entirely possible to have an attention to silence at the same time everything is going on around me. This attention depends on my connection to organic sensation; the moment that that connection becomes active, the silence is present within. Everything else in life becomes an argument; the silence is a fact. It has a capacity to receive everything that takes place without being disturbed. 

On this note, let’s examine a quote from Kasyapa in the Vedic hymns:

I am undisturbed, and undisturbed my soul,

undisturbed my eyes and ears 

undisturbed my inward breath, my outward breath

undisturbed my breath within—undisturbed the whole of me.

— Atharvaveda, Book XIX

Of importance here is the residence in silence, which is what the word undisturbed refers to. It merits a whole verse of its own.

The fourth line, which mentions the breath within, is also translated as the "diffusive" breath. This is a reference to the act of organic sensation, which is fed by finer substances inhaled. While this may be obscure to the uninitiated, it is indubitably so. 

This verse, furthermore, refers to the first center: the physical body.

This capacity for silence is essential, because the place in which it receives life—which is the subject of the next verse in the Veda—is what feeds Being:

Thereafter rose Desire in the beginning, Desire the primal seed and germ of Spirit,

O Kama (wish) dwelling with the lofty Kama (higher wish), give growth of riches to the sacrificer, (...)

Prolific, thousand eyed, and undecaying, a horse with seven reins Time bears us onward,

Sages inspired with holy knowledge mount him, his chariot wheels are all the worlds of creatures.

This verse refers to the second and third centers: 

• Emotion (desire and Kama) is a horse with seven reins (a reference to the law of octaves)
• Intelligence (sages with holy knowledge mount him.) 

So in this Veda, it teaches that what begins in the silence of the body lays the foundation for three-centered work. It mentions that feeling (desire) is what gives birth to the soul (the germ of spirit) and that wealth is gained through suffering (growth of riches to the sacrificer.) 

What moves Being forward through life is all the worlds of creatures, that is, his chariot wheels. This is, in other words, an allegorical call to work in life — which begins undisturbed, in silence.

What is most important about this teaching is its emphasis on what is undisturbed –everything, basically, that begins within Being. This is a reference to that selfsame silence that is present behind all else.

May your heart be close to God, 

and God close to your heart.

Lee

Lee van Laer is a Senior Editor at Parabola Magazine.