I have been considering different aspects of silence, since I am encouraging meditative silence as a spiritual antidote to the Pandemic noise of jarring news and controversy. Meditation of course offers more than respite from information overload, and as a Zen adage cautions, "when it's noisy, don't disturb the noise." We don't want to add to our challenge of finding calm in the Pandemic storm by ourselves fighting with the dissonance, in society or within our own thoughts. In meditation, silence is the disengagement from the external world and our thoughts about it. The external world though, is under no obligation to calm down as we calm down, although surprisingly, it often does, at least for a little while. Those small moments of true silence, condition us for more extended stays, building a familiarity that welcomes both inner and outer peace..
When I first settled into this living space with family in California, I browsed a local shop for a few things to brighten my quarters and found a bin of signs. While I am not usually a fan of sign decor, one leaped out at me as the perfect directive as I set up my space in this boisterous household. You see it below.
There is a calm, silent center already within us. We don't really create it; we give it room to expand. We turn to meet it and it thrives. (Susan Nettleton)
