"Silent night, holy night; All is calm, all is bright": there is something about the lulling rhythm and the soothing final cadence of “Silent Night” that captures the spirit and quietude of Christmas – yet, it's not always the reality, with frantic preparations and merriment replacing the opportunity for quiet reflection and true connection with the Christ Consciousness.
The times around Christmas and New Year are heavily inviting us to rest, to go within, to meditate and/or simply be. To contemplate on what has passed and what has not yet revealed itself and mostly, on whatever IS at the given moment.
Days of deep contemplation and withdrawal from other influences might be filled with silence from within as from the outside, they might even reveal a completely new "facet" of silence that one might have never had experienced before. Almost ironic, the deep, deep silence might often be filled with a world of sounds that aren´t experienced through the senses of the ears. As Kahlil Gibran describes it:
“My Soul counseled me to listen for voices that rise neither from the tongue nor the throat;
Before that day I heard but dully, but now I have learned to listen to silence;
To hear its choirs singing the songs of ages,
Chanting the hymns of space, and disclosing the secrets of eternity.”
As all the outer sounds are constantly flowing in the ever-present silence, it's the silence itself that contains them and gives them a space for their unfolding. When a sound ends, silence becomes more obvious and tangible, although it has been there all the time. Silence is the container and sound is the contained. It seems like that if we become silent enough, we can become a container for all the sounds and noises that are usually contained in silence, in space itself.
Once one becomes aware of that container, he/she might get in touch with the sense of inner hearing of vastness which ultimately IS the all containing Silence.
That is when days in silence can be filled with the pounding of the surf of the sea, the blowing of shells, the sounds of subtle instruments, the humming of bees and so much more. Sounds as subtle as they can be, yet as clearly and in a constant flow with all that is. The sound of silence.
“And I heard the voice from heaven. Like the sound of many waters, like the sound of loud thunder, the voice I heard was like the sounds of harpers playing on their harps.”
We can search for silence for a life time. Or even several life times. Yet, if we are looking for a kind of silence that is granting us relief from the outer noise and our chatting mind, we might miss one thing completely: the entire creation itself started with and is still based on a constant sound.
"In the beginning there was word, and the word was with God, and the word was God."
If we dare, we can try to imagine a time before the Universe existed. Imagining a field of Pure (Clear Light) Consciousness, an eternal Silence. Not an empty silence, but one filled with the potential for everything. Maybe - who can know for sure - at some point, Pure (Clear Light) Consciousness decided it wanted to have an experience but, as nothing else existed, it could only experience itself. Because all experiences are based on contrast, Pure Consciousness had to move within itself to experience itself. It was movement that was – and likely still is – needed for the expansion of the Consciousness to take place, a creation of time and space for its unfolding. Yet, movement creates friction, and friction creates noise, so Pure Consciousness experiencing itself created and always will create sound and noise.
So, if you dare, stop your anyway quite hopeless search for silence. On the contrary, start opening yourself for the divine sounds of creation itself as the deepest form of silence possible on the earthly realms. There is the saying "The quieter you become, the more you can hear". To her, this points to the understanding that whatever perceives sound is the silent space inside of us and the more silent we can become the better sounds can be perceived and defined, and their divine “sweet” nature revealed. Every sound thus, even the most mundane, becomes a doorway to a deeper reality. And yet, once you go deeper in this understanding you might experience that everything (including sounds) experienced from the outside can also be perceived inside of us. At this point one might start wondering if there is actually any separation between the "outside" and the "inside"… Could it be that the ever-present space-silence outside of our body containing all the noise is the same as the one inside of us? Could it be that there is no inside and outside as far as space-consciousness is concerned?
And who or what is it that is experiencing the sound of the silence as the ears are always only a channel, an entryway. Osho once said that senses are doorways, and as one can walk through the door to go outside, one can change direction and go inside through the same door. He said that senses are like a double pointed arrow. To her this is pointing at a a guideway to the essence, which isn´t about the noise and not even about silence. The true answer might lie within the nameless and unknowable mystery that is the container for all of it taking place, within us as well as outside of us (if one even wants to keep that separation).
So, be still and allow all of your being to listen. Sometimes, if you sit very quietly, you will hear the sound of creation itself, like a distant cosmic hum. Listen within you; it’s not outside you, it is you.
(Picture credit to dear Christian Felgenhauer)
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