The Sacred Healing Of Noble Silence

In order for us to practice well, we need to learn how to create and then dwell in a quality the Buddha called Noble Silence – something that is precious and multi-faceted, like a jewel, and not simply about being quiet. This talk explores all the many reasons why it’s necessary and essential for us, along with offering practices that can help us to experience it more often, and slowly learn to live our lives from within this peaceful space of silence. It includes a meditation at the end.

Transcript

So,

As I was thinking about a topic for this month's talk,

I realized that what's been at the very top of my mind lately is something I've been called to explain or describe a lot this year,

Which is the importance and sacredness of a quality and practice that the Buddha called Noble Silence.

And one of the reasons I've been tasked to do this more often lately is because for many different reasons,

I have needed to change almost all of my regular retreat venues just over the past year or so for both the day-long retreats and also the longer residential ones.

And so,

As a kind of natural part of this transition,

I've been trying my very best to explain the practice of Noble Silence to the very kind people who have very graciously offered us these new beautiful spaces to gather in.

And what this means is that I've not only needed to describe what this needs to look like for us in practical terms,

But maybe more importantly,

I've had to try to put into words why Noble Silence is so necessary and essential for our practice of meditation.

And of course,

I am fully aware that this is not something that is very common at all.

We tend to have 100 to 150 people or more gathering for an event that requires as much silence as possible for the entire day and sometimes even five to seven days at a time.

And so,

Whenever I'm holding a retreat,

For instance,

What this means is that I need to request a space that can offer us silence both inside as well as outside.

And I also have to ask all the different staff and community members to also please honor and maybe even participate in our silence.

And this includes honoring our need for very little distraction.

Because in actual practice,

Noble Silence is really multifaceted,

Like a jewel.

And it isn't just about being quiet.

For instance,

Our practice involves bringing an intention of silence to all of our experiences and very consciously eliminating any distraction so that we can better focus on the present moment and attend to whatever's arising in the mind and the body and the heart.

So just as an example,

Whenever we attend a retreat,

One of the things that we're asked to do is to try as much as possible not to make eye contact with the other people who are attending.

And this is mainly because eye contact is a kind of communication.

This can just create a lot of distraction and even stress when we're passing so many people all day long,

Or again,

Maybe for days at a time.

And of course,

Smiles and eye contact just naturally happen.

And it's really okay.

We all do it,

Myself included.

It's just natural that we do that.

But the idea is that when we're on retreat,

We're being given permission to actually become a little more vulnerable and open by allowing ourselves and each other to take a break from wearing our social masks so that we can focus more inwardly instead of more outwardly.

And I know that especially for newcomers,

This direction can sometimes just feel really difficult,

Maybe even just socially wrong or incorrect,

Can feel weird.

But the absolute beauty of this practice is that over time,

What happens in this space of collective silence is that everyone starts to feel even more connected to each other and therefore less alone.

As the layers of self kind of slowly start to drop away,

We can really sense that.

And because our sense of feeling separate is considered the source of our deepest wounding and suffering,

This very rich sense of belonging that can appear in the silence is just absolutely precious and can be so transformative.

Especially at the end of longer retreats,

I've seen people just break down and weep and hug people that they've never even spoken to before because they're just feeling that connected to one another at the end of retreat.

And I'm actually getting ready to go into that kind of deeper,

More connected silence next week at a five-day retreat I'm going to be offering in Romney,

West Virginia.

I'm so looking forward to that feeling of connection that happens in the silence.

And I know that I probably say this often,

But it's really true that there's nothing like retreat to show us how truly powerful that space of sustained silence can be.

And again,

How incredibly transformative,

Especially when it's with other people who are all holding that space together.

It really is something special.

And while I know that not everyone experiences this,

What I found is that almost every time that I've led a retreat,

Even a day long,

People will come up to me after and tell me that in the end,

They just didn't want to leave what they discovered in the silence.

It's like when we're finally able to enter that deeper space of noble silence,

So often it can just seem really difficult to go back into our daily lives with all the noise and energy and distraction that comes with it.

Having said that,

I also know that for many people who are new to the practice especially,

Or maybe new to retreat,

It can sometimes feel almost impossible to imagine being alone in the silence for an extended period,

Even if it just means five or 15 minutes of trying to sit with ourselves.

But the truth is,

This is exactly what we're training ourselves to do,

To not only learn how to be in the silence,

But actually how to be that silence itself.

The spiritual teacher Kabir Helminski tells us this,

Anyone who has probed the inner life,

Who has sat in silence long enough to experience the stillness of the mind behind its apparent noise is faced with a mystery.

Apart from all the outer attractions of life in the world,

There exists at the center of human consciousness something quite satisfying and beautiful in itself,

A beauty without features.

The mystery is not so much that these two dimensions exist,

An outer world and the mystery of the inner world,

But that we are suspended between them as a space in which both worlds meet as if the human being is the meeting point,

The threshold between two worlds.

As if the human being is the meeting point,

The threshold between two worlds.

I just love that.

All of that being said,

In order for us to develop this ability,

We really do first need to practice sitting in the silence so that we can take a closer look at all the noise that's within,

If we will.

Of course,

As we all know,

This isn't as easy as it sounds.

In fact,

Way back in 1654,

The philosopher Blaise Pascal suggested that,

Quote,

All of humanity's problems stem from one's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.

All of humanity's problems stem from one's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.

About 10 years ago now,

There was actually a really telling study that was conducted where researchers asked participants to simply sit in an empty lab room in silence for 15 minutes without any distraction.

So for instance,

Without things like magazines or cell phones or games,

Apparently the only thing they were told that they could do was to push a small button that would shock them.

And so before entering this room,

Each of the participants had to fill out a series of questions and every single person agreed that they would actually pay money to not be shocked.

And yet,

After those 15 minutes of silence,

A full 67% of the men and 25% of the women chose to shock themselves sometimes many times rather than just sit there in the silence by themselves.

One of the researchers said about this,

I found it quite surprising and a bit disheartening that people seem to be so uncomfortable when left to their own devices that they can be so bored that even being shocked seems more entertaining.

So that's the bad news.

The good news out of the study was that while the researchers concluded that many people have a difficult time being alone with their thoughts,

They also suggested that meditation and other contemplative training practices can really help us with this,

Again by training us how to be with our thoughts in the silence and how to better direct them.

And so I'm feeling really inspired to explain Noble Silence a little more to those of you who might be brand new to being in it,

As well as reminding those of us who have experienced it before how incredibly restful and healing and transformative can be to really allow ourselves to be in that space more often.

Because if we're honest,

So often we can just somehow forget about our need for silence.

It's like we tend to get so busy,

Maybe feeling the need to fill up every moment of our day that we often don't allow ourselves to simply stop and just be present in the silence.

And so one of the very first ways we can begin to use our mindfulness practice is to start consciously becoming more and more aware of really how good it can feel and how healing it can be to allow ourselves more and more quiet time in our lives,

More periods just being present without a need to do.

Might even be helpful to remember that thanks to modern science,

We now have clinical proof that less noise in our lives can create a healing effect on both the mind and the body,

Along with proof that a lack of silence can actually create the opposite effect.

So researchers have shown that even moderate levels of unwanted noise can create an increase in cortisol,

Hypertension,

And a rise in our blood pressure.

The word noise,

The Latin root meaning of this actually means queasiness or pain,

Which I find interesting.

And way back in the mid 1800s,

Florence Nightingale,

The famous nurse and social reformer was onto this idea.

She wrote,

Quote,

Unnecessary noise is the most cruel absence of care that can be inflicted on sick or well.

Every careless clatter or banal bit of banter can be a source of alarm,

Distress,

And loss of sleep for recovering patients.

Quiet,

She said,

Is part of care as essential for patients as medication.

And what I find interesting is that the words meditation and medicine both come from the same Latin word,

Which is mediri,

Which means to cure,

To cure.

And so physiologically,

Whenever we're exposed to noise,

It's actually literally shaking us.

So sometimes in very small ways,

Some of which can become chronically stressful over time,

And sometimes,

Of course,

In really powerful ways.

So we might notice,

For instance,

That whenever we pay attention to or become more aware of We might also sense a vibration.

Because truly,

This is how sound is received and experienced in the body as varying levels of vibration.

And to get a little technical,

What happens is that sound waves vibrate the tiny bones of the ears,

Which then convert these vibrations into electrical signals that are received by the brain.

And in the brain,

These electrical signals are received by clusters of neurons that are associated with memory and emotion.

And when noise is received by these neurons,

It prompts an immediate release of cortisol,

Which is that toxic stress hormone.

And in the body,

A rush of cortisol is supposed to give us a kind of a quick bit of energy to help us respond to stress.

And this is actually super helpful to our ancient ancestors who needed to be on the high alert for any wrestling in the bushes kind of thing,

Or might be literally a huge animal waiting to pounce.

Or it could be someone from another tribe who wanted to kill them.

So that was real back then.

But today,

What we're hearing is rarely a giant tiger or an enemy from another tribe,

But our bodies still react to the noise as if something is somehow out to get us,

Something we need to be wary of or pay close attention to.

And actually,

This is why people who live in consistently loud environments often experience chronically elevated levels of stress hormones,

Because they're actually unable to find the relief that a space of silence can bring,

Even while they're sleeping.

In fact,

In order for the body to come into more balance,

Scientists tell us that we actually require longer periods of silence so that we can return to homeostasis.

So it's just like we might require food or water,

Or like Florence Nightingale suggested,

It's like medicine for us.

And we get this most often during the night so that we can sleep and restore.

I'm assuming that most likely most of us turn off the loud music and the TV at night.

Yet many of us might not think much about getting our daily doses of silence throughout our actual days when we're awake.

And at least here in the U.

S.

,

Silence just really isn't a part of our culture,

Which seems to want to keep us constantly swimming in noise and distraction.

I've noticed that almost everywhere we go now,

Restaurants,

Gyms,

Stores,

Grocery stores,

Hospitals,

And doctor's offices even,

Which are supposed to be places of healing,

There's usually either a television on,

Or many of these,

Or music,

Or sometimes even both at the same time.

So rarely,

Sadly,

Is there simply a space of silence.

And like fish in the ocean,

This water of noise,

If you will,

Can just start to feel normal,

Like the TV or radio being on constantly,

Maybe in our cars or in our homes,

So much so that we might not even notice them.

They're so much a part of that constant distraction of our lives.

Again,

The problem is that we actually need the silence for our very health.

In fact,

Just a few years ago,

Researchers discovered that silence actually creates the opposite effect on the brain than noise does.

What they discovered is that just two hours of silence a day can create new cells in a region of our brain that is associated with memory and emotion and learning.

I hope that's encouraging.

One of the researchers said,

Quote,

We saw that silence is really helping the newly generated cells to differentiate into neurons and integrate into the system.

Freedom from noise and goal-directed tasks,

It appears,

Unites the quiet within and without,

Allowing our conscious workspace to do its thing,

To weave ourselves into the world,

Discover where we fit in.

That is the power of silence.

And so you also might have noticed that this quote included the words,

Freedom from noise and goal-directed tasks,

Right?

And so when we're talking about the kind of silence that leads to more balance and healing,

What we're really talking about is not just a quiet room or space,

Although,

Of course,

That's really a part of it.

What we're talking about is this quality of noble silence.

And happily in the suttas,

The Buddha gives us very specific instructions about how we can both practice and cultivate this noble silence.

As you might imagine,

This includes instructions not only about how we can find and create quiet surroundings,

But also about how we can quiet the mind and the body,

Which is our true home,

Free from goal-directed tasks.

And so to begin in the suttas,

The Buddha asks us to make a strong effort to practice in silence as much as possible by,

Quote,

Going to a forest,

To the foot of a secluded tree,

Or to a solitary dwelling.

What I love about these instructions is that the Buddha suggests going outdoors as the first and best option,

As a way to really connect with nature.

Because don't we all feel a natural connection and a peace when we're just outside?

Even if they're loud,

Like a rainstorm or tree frogs or a wood fire,

Aren't natural noises just vastly more pleasant than any kind of human or mechanical noise,

Like a refrigerator or talking or a heater,

Et cetera?

The reason this is true is that as the teachings urge us to remember,

We are truly not separate from nature,

Right?

We're all made of earth,

Air,

Fire,

Water,

And even stars.

And so there's a real natural attunement that we can tap into whenever we're outside in it,

Which makes it much easier to discover that sense of silence and connection.

And just for a moment,

I want to stop here and say that,

While it's really important that we try as much as possible to create or find a quiet space,

As we all know,

Absolute complete silence is almost always impossible.

About 30 years ago now,

Actually,

When I was living in Boulder,

Colorado,

One of my roommates was a kind of a master massage therapist.

And he lived in this little house that was separate from the main one.

And he happened to have what's called a sensory deprivation tank in one of the rooms.

And if you don't know what this is,

It looks a little scary.

Honestly,

It looks like a big coffin.

And it's filled with a kind of salt water that lets you float in it at body temperature.

And so when you climb into it and it's closed,

What it does is essentially take away all of the body's sensations,

Including sound,

Because you're floating,

Really don't feel anything.

And I know this sounds a little scary,

But when I did it,

It was actually one of the most incredibly powerful and relaxing things I've ever experienced in my life.

I bring this up because the truth is that out in the real world,

There really is no place in it that is completely soundless like that.

That's kind of an artificial,

Again,

Sensory deprivation tank.

And so part of our practice is really learning how to be with or allow the sounds,

Remembering that our resistance to sound is what's going to cause us a lot of unnecessary stress and suffering.

Many years ago,

When I was living in New York City,

I actually learned a lot about practicing with noise because it was just so completely constant,

Truly.

It was really like boot camp for practicing with sound.

It was actually so loud and distracting that I ended up coming up with a meditation for myself to help me work with the noise.

And I love it so much that I still practice with it.

So what happened was I was sitting on my meditation bench in my apartment with my eyes closed,

And I just had this idea or this thought that I could imagine maybe that I had died and that I had been somehow reincarnated and given this precious one hour to meditate.

And during that time with my eyes closed,

I had to discover where I was and what age I was just by paying attention to all my senses.

So I kind of was trying to play a little game with myself.

And so when I scanned my body with my awareness,

For instance,

I could feel the bulk and shape of it and some of the different aches and pains and then decide,

Hey,

You know,

I think I'm probably in my 40s right now.

That's what my body feels like.

Then I started becoming aware of all the different sounds around me.

And because I was imagining that I had been dead and had been given this one hour to live,

I was so excited about everything that I was listening to.

So right away I was like,

Wow,

I think I'm in my apartment in Brooklyn.

Wow,

You know,

There's those hot,

Noisy radiators and oh my gosh,

There's the bus noise and there's the sirens and there's the people on the corner screaming.

And whoa,

There's my wicked upstairs neighbor who's pounding her high heels on the wood floor again.

This is just amazing.

And honestly,

I would be so happy if I could go back to that particular meditation,

That first one,

And experience myself in Brooklyn again.

And also to be honest,

Being in my 40s again,

Right?

And I've used that same meditation over the years.

And one of the reasons that it seems to work so well with noise is that it helps me to practice not resisting it and to become really curious about it instead,

Really curious.

And so I hope that you might try that.

Maybe just try that one of these times that you're sitting.

Having said all of that,

The Buddha actually instructs us to try our very best to find the quietest place and time to practice so we can really better access more quiet.

Then once we've finally created the quietest space that we can,

We want to allow ourselves to become quiet.

And again,

This does not mean just not speaking.

It means very consciously quieting our bodies as well,

And allowing ourselves to become more and more still.

And I know this might be difficult in the beginning,

But for those of you who are new,

I want to encourage you to really stick with it.

Because the more we practice,

The more we learn that we can really still the body.

We really can.

We can stop fidgeting so much,

Stop shuffling our feet,

Playing with our hands,

Changing our posture.

And as we begin to do this,

We begin to sense that silence in the body actually feels pretty good.

And then as our practice deepens,

We discover that we can access it more and more quickly,

More easily.

And as you might imagine,

This then translates into our daily lives.

The more and more we practice,

The more we almost naturally start to pay more attention to our bodies and slowing them down,

Really quieting them.

More and more we can start to notice throughout our day when the body is noisy,

Fidgety,

Stressed,

Et cetera,

And consciously start slowing and letting things drop and soften.

We can drop our shoulders.

We can soften our jaws and our tummy,

Et cetera.

And as we become more and more mindful of how much noise we're making with our own bodies as we go through our lives,

What we often discover is that we like or prefer to move more slowly,

Savoring the walk,

If you will,

Rather than constantly running.

There's a famous story about Thich Nhat Hanh that I often like to share right at the beginning of my retreats because I find it so encouraging.

He said this,

One day when I was a novice monk,

My teacher asked me to do something for him.

I was very excited to do it for him because I loved my teacher very much.

And so I rushed out to do it.

But because I was so excited,

I wasn't mindful enough and I slammed the door on my way out.

My teacher called me back and said,

My child,

Please go out and close the door again,

But this time do better than you did before.

Hearing his words,

I knew that my practice had been lacking.

So I bowed to my teacher and walked to the door with all of my being,

Every step with mindfulness.

I went out and very mindfully closed the door after me.

My teacher did not have to tell me a second time.

Now,

Every time I open and close the door,

I do so with mindfulness,

Remembering my teacher.

He said,

Many years later,

I was in Kentucky with Thomas Merton,

The Trappist monk,

And I told him that story and he said,

Well,

I noticed that without you telling me,

I have seen the way you close the door.

I've seen the way you close the door.

So again,

As we're practicing to consciously,

Mindfully slow down and eliminate quote noise during noble silence,

We're also talking about eliminating all the things that tend to distract our minds from our direct experience.

So for instance,

During retreat,

We practice noble silence by agreeing to not do things like read or write in our journals or listen to music or use the internet or even eat snacks after our meals.

And I do understand that many people find these instructions really difficult and it is hard to explain,

But I really like this explanation that I received years ago from a longtime student,

Which is about why we refrain from journaling,

But it applies to all the rest as well.

This person wrote this,

The problem with writing in a journal during a deep retreat is that it pulls your mind out of the non-discursive,

Non-conceptual state that you've cultivated by meditating all day and keeping complete silence.

One of the goals of retreat is to quiet the chattiness of your mind and become more open to non-conceptual understanding.

Writing down your experiences in a journal works against this and draws you back into the discursive and conceptual way of thinking.

I hope that's helpful.

So when we're on retreat,

We're also agreeing to not communicate with one another for very similar reasons.

One of these is because social conversation,

Even nonverbal contact like eye contact,

Tends to keep the mind activated and periods of not talking or not communicating can really help the mind to just rest,

To find some rest.

What I find interesting about this is that so often,

Not only are our emotions activated by communicating,

But they're activated even when we're anticipating these communications.

So even though the silence might feel maybe completely awkward in the beginning,

After a while,

It really does work to quiet both the mind and the emotions.

And again,

As you might expect,

As our mental and emotional lives start to calm down,

Our bodies tend to start calming down as well,

Because again,

They're not disconnected.

Another important part of entering noble silence during our meditation practice is that we're also consciously giving ourselves sacred time to not do,

Not direct,

Not anticipate,

Not plan.

Instead,

We're asking ourselves to become very quiet and to simply take time to listen inwardly to be again,

Rather than to do,

Which of course is so difficult,

Which is why it's a practice.

But the idea is that the more we practice this way,

The more this might then translate into discovering more moments of just being in our daily lives,

Away from our cushions,

Just sitting,

Just walking,

Just being without distracting ourselves or planning,

Looking at our phones,

Figuring things out,

Et cetera,

Going away from ourselves by escaping,

Dreaming,

In whatever way this looks like,

What we're doing is simply being present and awake to our lives.

I love the way Norton Jester,

The noted children's author describes this to children.

He says,

Have you ever heard the wonderful silence just before the dawn or the quiet and calm just as a storm ends?

Or perhaps you know the silence when you haven't the answer to a question you've been asked or the hush of a country road at night or the expectant pause of a room full of people when someone is just about to speak or most beautiful of all,

The moment after the door closes and you're alone in the whole house.

Each one is different and all very beautiful if you listen carefully.

And with that word listen,

I just want to say I think it's interesting that the word silent and listen are actually made up of the same letters and I really think they're interchangeable.

So when we enter the silence or if you like that sacred pause,

What we're really doing is listening.

We're not waiting for answers or explanations.

We're just really being that silence,

Allowing everything else to pass through that silence without resistance and without having a particular goal.

The writer Anne Young writes,

Silence enables us to see the sacredness of all life,

To see life steady and to see it whole.

In an age that has lost all sense of the sacred,

Of awe and wonder at the divine penetration throughout the physical human plane,

How much we need the recovery of silence.

Without some sense of awe,

There is little basis for meaning.

So when we can become quiet and simply listen,

Often what happens is that we can suddenly sense that awe along with a sense of wholeness or connection.

And in that silence,

We can also more clearly hear what our hearts have been trying to say.

Suddenly in that silence,

We're present to what's actually here and we can sometimes suddenly feel maybe what we've been ignoring or trying to suppress,

Right?

So maybe we suddenly sense our sadness or grief or anger,

Loneliness,

Whatever it is.

Or maybe we just suddenly are able to touch that sense of pure joy or peace or awe.

When we can access that silence,

We can also start to hear all of those things that we've been saying to ourselves,

Everything we've been automatically believing.

And instead of being swept up in a constant flow of thought,

We can start to better access the silence that's between the thoughts.

And after a while,

Those periods of silence just become longer and longer,

And we can not only connect with that silence,

But actually dwell in it.

We can actually become that silence so that we can more clearly hear our thoughts and our beliefs.

And this is when we can begin to question all of those automatic beliefs,

As well as offer ourselves great kindness and compassion.

That last part is probably the most important,

That we listen with great kindness.

As a late great teacher Ram Dass told us,

For someone deeply trapped in a prison of thought,

How good it can feel to meet a mind that hears,

A heart that reassures.

It's as if a listening mind is,

In and of itself,

An invitation to another mind to listen to.

How much it can mean when we accept the invitation and hear the world anew.

We can do that for ourselves,

But of course we can't do any of this well,

We can't really listen well or feel well when we're just constantly distracted again by all the noise in our lives,

Which includes our own constant mind chatter.

But again,

As those researchers showed,

Being in the silence can sometimes just be incredibly difficult.

Even when we want to be quiet,

Our minds tend to have other plans for us,

Right?

This is because sometimes when we start to sit down and listen,

The silence can often magnify all our inner chatter.

It can just feel overwhelming,

Like wait,

This isn't working at all,

I'm actually thinking more than I was before.

This inner chatter can include all those thoughts and feelings and conversations and even uncomfortable physical sensations that we've mostly been trying to avoid.

If we think about it in a very real way,

Often the noise and the distraction provides a kind of salve or an escape,

Maybe just like a glass of wine might.

It helps to keep those things at bay.

But the good news is the more we practice,

The more we become comfortable with and familiar with the silence,

The more comfortable we become with listening to our own thoughts and feelings without judgment,

Without suppressing them.

We become more comfortable with watching them arise and pass,

Resting in the awareness,

The silence,

The pure presence that is simply letting it all flow through.

After a while,

What happens is that this internal dialogue at some point also starts to quiet and we can begin to not only slow down and become more quiet,

But become more present with what is actually here right now,

Instead of being so caught up in the noise and distraction that is our talking mind.

As we do this,

Of course,

We experience a more heightened sense of intimacy with the world,

A deeper sense of pure presence,

And again,

That sacred sense of belonging.

As we start to achieve a more sustained silence,

Both in our practice and in our daily lives,

What happens is that we start to become more and more awake.

We awaken.

Our senses become much more alive and both our inner and our outer world can appear to us with just greater clarity.

We might think of a pure blue open sky that's been obscured with clouds,

Suddenly clearing.

It can feel like that.

For instance,

In this clearer space,

We may begin to notice the sound of birdsong more often.

Or maybe we start to notice all the different sounds all around us,

All the different birdsongs individually.

Whenever we can allow ourselves to tap into that space of silence,

We can also start to hear our quieter thoughts and emotions,

Which normally,

Again,

Get drowned out by either the outside noise or the constant inner noise or dialogue.

In this more sustained silence and presence,

We can begin to really just experience all of it exactly as it is and not how we think it is,

But as it is.

I think for time purposes,

I'm going to end there.

If you'd like to join me,

I'd like to offer you a brief meditation on silence and sound.

It's available to you and you're ready.

Just want to invite you to find a comfortable seat or posture for meditation.

If you're out walking,

You might tap into your breath,

The sense of your feet walking on whatever they're walking on,

Body moving through space,

Becoming more embodied,

Aware of the body moving.

You're driving,

Become aware of your seat,

The cushion that you're sitting on,

Your hands on the steering wheel,

A little more aware of the breath.

For all of us,

You might take just a nice,

Deep inhale,

Filling the lungs,

And a slow exhale,

Letting go,

Wrapping the shoulders,

Softening.

Maybe a couple of rounds of these deeper breaths on your own,

Just to start coming into the body more and consciously asking the body to soften a bit.

On each exhale,

Especially,

Letting go.

You might notice the center of the palms,

Let the center of the palms soften a bit in a gesture of receiving and letting go,

And letting them be open,

Allowing the whole area of the face to soften,

Forehead,

Eyes,

Cheeks,

Jaw,

Still aware of the body breathing.

Again,

Maybe dropping the shoulders,

Softening the shoulders,

Maybe aware of the rise and fall of the ribcage,

Front,

Side,

And back,

Body breathing.

Even notice the tummy,

If you can soften the tummy a bit,

Just encouraging the whole body to be a little more open to experience,

Not holding on so tightly,

Aware of the flow of the breath.

And then as you're ready,

I'm going to invite you to open up to sound,

Awareness of sound,

Allowing sound to rise and pass as it does.

Again,

Just getting really curious about the sound,

Rather than judging,

Resisting,

Labeling.

It would be possible to just notice vibration of sound in the body,

Imagining the sound passing through the body itself as you breathe.

And as you continue,

I want to invite you to see if you can connect with the space of silence itself,

That space of awareness that's simply experiencing the sound as it arises and passes,

And you connect with the stillness that's experiencing the noise or the sound,

Connecting with that space of silence and dwelling in that a little more.

Dwell in the silence,

And if what's running through the silence is thought or physical sensation,

See if you can also accommodate that,

Allowing the thoughts to arise and pass,

Or getting curious about whatever you're experiencing in the body,

Connecting more with that space of silent awareness that is simply allowing everything to be experienced as it arises and passes.

And finally,

With the eyes still closed,

Just listening to these words from the late,

Great Mary Oliver,

Who told us this.

Ordinarily,

I go to the woods alone with not a single friend,

For they are all smilers and talkers,

And therefore,

Unsuitable.

I don't really want to be witness talking to the cat birds or hugging the old black oak tree.

I have my way of praying as you no doubt have yours.

Besides,

When I'm alone,

I can become invisible.

I can sit on the top of a dune as motionless as an uprise of weeds until the foxes run by unconcerned.

I can hear the almost unhearable sound of the roses singing.

If you have ever gone to the woods with me,

I must love you very much.

Namaste and blessings.

Reviews

Grateful for your talks that educate and inspire! ✌🏼🤎

As always a wonderful talk one I need to hear regularly. I wish I could attend your silent retreats, but I’m not a traveler. Enjoy and namaste 🙏🏻

Thank you, Shell. I am so grateful for you and your talks!

Such a wonderful talk Shell and the beautiful poetry from Mary Oliver. Plus the bells…. Oh I love the bells and following their fade with my hearing.
Your Brooklyn apartmemt noises are of a similar intensity to what I experience in my environment.
Noise really is destructive to our Senses and I enjoyed hearing your concept of it. It all makes perfect sense to why we’re overloaded with stress.
And I only realised when you spoke of it that Listen and Silent use exactly the same letters.
Thankyou for this gem. 💎 🤗🙏🏻🌷