the silence

I have found two types of silence. I believe it is possible to discover even more but for now, I'm glad I'm able to visit these two from time to time.

One is the silence of the mind. The mental space from where you watch your thoughts coming and going and dancing with each other. When you learn to stay there, just watching and not being dragged by any of those identifications, not letting them own you; that's when you notice the existence of a quiet space deep down your consciousness.

This silence, I learned to recognize through meditation.

It took me a while to really understand the infinite benefits of this practice. I thought it was some kind of mental elevated state that only gurus or spiritual masters were capable to attain. But I was wrong.

It is not about clearing the mind. The mind will never be free of thoughts as the sky will not remain without clouds forever. But no matter the size or weight of the clouds, the sky always rests up there, as the silence under our super active mind.

The other one, that I just found a few years later, is the one I like to name "the silence of existence". When you learn how to be a spectator of the mind is gets instinctive to do the same with your surroundings.

One day, I tried the exercise of actually listening to "the silence".

I was in my bedroom, hearing to all the noises around me: the children playing outside, my dog's paws on the floor, the wind passing through the window, the building works nearby, the doors closing... And instead of trying to shut them down (my first push), I accepted that they were there. Slowly, I started to pay attention to the sound beneath all that noise.

Suddenly, like a child discovering a new color, I caught it! The clear sound of silence. More than an audio experience, I could feel it. It may present itself with an energy wave throughout the body, a different vibration, or just feel like all the weight has gone. It may even be impossible to describe in words.

When I go there, I feel free. I feel the pure silence of my own existence.

For me, it is much easier to reach this place when I'm in nature, away from artificial conditioning or distraction.

The sweltering heat of the day had already gone with the sun, lay down behind the mountains. There was still some light but no one was around.

And there it was, between the chirping of the birds, the whispering breeze in the trees and the wild sound of the water - the transparency of silence.

The time vanished… and I touched the beauty of being present.