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Silence and
its form
Silence and
its form
What is silence?
What is silence?
Silence means silencing what’s going on inside me. It has nothing to do with the sounds and activities going on outside and around me. I can be in a noisy room and very silent. I can be in a quiet space and not be silent.
It’s really about bringing my attention, focus, emotions, the wavering and wandering mind, the voice in my head and everything else that creates dissonance, distraction to calm down, quieten and settle down. It brings us to a state of just being, equanimity and true surrender. A state of non thinking. Just present. Centered.
What are the forms or methods of achieving internal silence?
From my observation of people around and direct experience, there are actually many ways of achieving silence for the self. Here are the five categories and examples for each that I have come across. There are possibly more ways as well as categories.
1. Through the breath
2. Through touch
3. Through sound
4. Through visualisation
5. Through kinesthetic movement
6. Possibly through smell and taste (not observed or explored this enough to be sure)
Let’s explore each. The beauty of each of the above, is that these are options that we have with us at every point of time and can practise these whether we have a minute or an hour or a day or longer.
Through the breath
This is the tool that most meditative methods use. Pranayam, breath awareness in vipassana and other practices use the breath as the point of focus.
This is the tool that most meditative methods use. Pranayam, breath awareness in vipassana and other practices use the breath as the point of focus.
Through touch
Grounding is a practice that brings awareness and focus through the medium that the physical body is touching. This could be whether we are touching something with our hands, with our back, the seat of our chair or any other part of our body. Putting our hand on our stomach to feel the stomach heaving with the breath is also a form of focus through touch and breath. For people who need a concrete experience, many find this a good way to start building on their silence practices.
Grounding is a practice that brings awareness and focus through the medium that the physical body is touching. This could be whether we are touching something with our hands, with our back, the seat of our chair or any other part of our body. Putting our hand on our stomach to feel the stomach heaving with the breath is also a form of focus through touch and breath. For people who need a concrete experience, many find this a good way to start building on their silence practices.
Through sound
Using sound as a medium, multiple ways have developed
Using sound as a medium, multiple ways have developed