[NondualitySalon] On Silence and fierceness

[Guest guest]

This is being sent to the Advaitin list, as well, as there have been a

couple of posts there on silence and action.

 

Kate wrote:

 

I have come to understand recently

some different ways that one hears silence

 

I am most familiar with the obvious sounds -the end of

chatter and prattling in the absence of "others" -the

respite. This is easily the most welcome of

silences, like pulling the sheets up over your head before

dozing off to sleep.

 

I am tempted to perceive this silence as a reward for

some kind of endurance, although what was endured is

rather vague.

 

More and more frequently, however,

I am encountering a different a stronger,

stranger silence.

 

Some recently told me, "Silence listens... and asks"

So then, I watch as silence enfolds

and I hear the sound, grow louder and clearer

and ---defenses pop up... (I know I'm not the first.

I see examples everywhere. People begging, "Do you

see me?" "Am I real?" The rational mind may have

understanding, insight may be present, but still the

furious question of silence returns and nothingness

seems fierce.

 

 

Xan Maranya wrote:

>

>

> Kate,

> The silence seems fierce, but if you don't run you see through.

> Poonjaji used to talking about meeting the tiger on the path. If you

> just stand and face it the tiger eats you - and you become the tiger's

> insides. And more.

 

 

Jerry writes:

 

I enjoyed your contribution, Kate. And Hello, Xan. It's nice to meet

you. Bernadette Roberts opens her book The Experience of No-Self with

this passage:

 

"Through past experience I had become familiar with many different types

and levels of silence. There is a silence within, a silence that

descends from without; a silence that stills existence and a silence

that engulfs the entire universe. There is a silence of the self and its

faculties of will, thought, memory, and emotions. There is a silence in

which there is nothing, a silence in which there is something; and

finally, there is the silence of no-self and the silence of God. If

there was any path on which I could chart my contemplative experiences,

it would be this ever-expanding and deepening path of silence.

 

"On one occasion, however, this path seemed to come to an end when I

entered a silence form which I would never totally emerge."

 

Xan's words could well have been spoken by Roberts.

 

For my outline of this entire book, go to

<http://www3.ns.sympatico.ca/umbada/berna.htm>

 

Perhaps in Sanskrit, Pali, Tibetan, Japanese, Chinese, there are a

number words for different kinds of silence. And what is Absolute or

Ultimate Silence? This is very much worth talking about. If we must

chatter, let's chatter about silence! And in our silence let there be no

chatter at all.

[Guest guest]

> umbada (Jerry M. Katz)

[...]

> Perhaps in Sanskrit, Pali, Tibetan, Japanese, Chinese, there are a

> number words for different kinds of silence. And what is Absolute or

> Ultimate Silence? This is very much worth talking about. If we must

> chatter, let's chatter about silence! And in our silence let there be no

> chatter at all.

 

One could ask "what has to happen in order to (momentarily) disturb

silence"? This could be the mind-chatter, having the car-engine burnt out in

the middle of nowhere or having a toothache because of an inflamed root or

just the neighbor playing CD's at a high volume The major part of

mind-chatter ends with the end of duality and what remains as a possible

cause for the interruption of silence are feelings. Although this seems odd,

it isn't and sleep belongs to this category as well. When feelings have

been transcended (or burnt, in other terminology), one has "arrived" at the

"maximum silence" that is possible while being linked to a mortal frame.

 

Jan