I know some people are afraid of silence. What I expect is that they have not really experienced it. The silence that I am exploring resides in the heart and is different from a lack of noise or speech. The silence that happens when we focus attention on awareness creates such an eloquent emptiness that Life fills that space with everything we need in the moment.
Spending time in “heart silence” is a wonderful tool in our Practice toolkit, and a very useful one for staying Present. I’ve found that focusing on the breath is a way to enter silence, stay in silence, and take it with us wherever we go. In this way, I’ve noticed, we can even live in the silence of our heart in the midst of noise.
Some dictionary synonyms for silence are stillness, peace, calm, quiet. From my exploration, I’d add silence is presence, equanimity, well-being, joy, gratitude, wholeness, fullness, unconditional love and acceptance and much more. It certainly is a practice worthy of cultivating.
Gasshō,
Phil