Silence is tough. Take a second and think about the last time you sat in silence for more than a few moments. Most of us avoid silence for any particular length. We need to do something. Thus, when I ask about silence, I ask about the space where there is no noise and no activity. This is true silence - just being. The Buddhist monk Thich Naht Hanh puts it beautifully:
Keeping busy is a wonderful way to avoid what is really going on for us emotionally. Of course, keeping very busy is seen as a sign of success. How often have you said or heard something like, "Wow, I've got so much on my plate right now I can't keep up." We reward people who work long hours and rarely find time to take days off. It's a status symbol. Why is that we do not reward taking time to be just with who you are in order to better the relationship with self? Why is it we don't demand that time?
Part of why we might buy into the "busy" is in order to keep the self at bay. Really coming to know ourselves is tough and uncomfortable work. I recall some years ago being taught a therapy approach that required going through the therapy itself. I dove in only so far as I feared what was too far inside. Mightily resist I did. Yet I continue the journey.
When we look inside, what are we prepared to see. Silence gives us the space for the journey. So, we need to give ourselves permission to trespass our inner self to know it.
I have the impression that many of us are afraid of silence. We are always taking in something - text, music,radio, television or thoughts - to occupy the space. If quiet and space are so important for our happiness, why don't we make more room for them i our lives?
Keeping busy is a wonderful way to avoid what is really going on for us emotionally. Of course, keeping very busy is seen as a sign of success. How often have you said or heard something like, "Wow, I've got so much on my plate right now I can't keep up." We reward people who work long hours and rarely find time to take days off. It's a status symbol. Why is that we do not reward taking time to be just with who you are in order to better the relationship with self? Why is it we don't demand that time?
Part of why we might buy into the "busy" is in order to keep the self at bay. Really coming to know ourselves is tough and uncomfortable work. I recall some years ago being taught a therapy approach that required going through the therapy itself. I dove in only so far as I feared what was too far inside. Mightily resist I did. Yet I continue the journey.
When we look inside, what are we prepared to see. Silence gives us the space for the journey. So, we need to give ourselves permission to trespass our inner self to know it.
To look is to consume
To consume is to edit
In each of our gazes
We decide that upon which we will focus
By definition each gaze
Avoids something else
Each perspective consumed
Eliminates another view
Each turn of our gaze
Takes us away from another sight
What we see we take to be truth
But we see only with our perspective
Wee are wilfully blind to things
We do not wish to see
We edit out
That which is painful
Change is in seeing
What we have previously unseen
© Peter Choate, 2016
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