 Email
 Print |
"Because God whispers"
Being silent means more than just holding your tongue. It means listening for the softest, most subtle sound of all - the sound of the soul.
I sit under a palm tree (after assuring myself that all the coconuts have been removed, a leading cause of death in Bali, according to insiders) and open my laptop. What was that sublime flash again? Oh yes, the insight that we’re afraid of silence because it reminds us of our greatest fear: death. Gautama Buddha, one of the most brilliant psychologists, said we’re afraid of being “nothing.”
French monk Matthieu Ricard has also said most people live in a permanent state of fear. “That’s because most people aren’t able to fathom the reality—the silence—behind the symptoms. As a result, they hang on to manifestations: their job, body, religion or ideas. Because you can lose your job, body, religion or ideas, most people live their lives in perpetual fear.”
Still, I can well imagine people are afraid of the idea that they are “nothing” or “empty.” Would it help if we replaced these concepts with words like “whole,” “complete,” “full,” “potential” or “the life force energy”? These terms are, in fact, more accurate reflections of reality. Quantum physicists have known for some time that the so-called “empty space” between atoms is filled with life energy. Physicist Albert Einstein spoke of this field as “the only reality.”
When you look at it this way, contact with this invisible dimension is nothing to be afraid of. Who wouldn’t want to be connected to the force behind life itself? Not to be connected is far scarier.
People who don’t allow themselves the time to contact this underlying energy and intelligence remain deprived of something at least as vital to their well-being: inspiration. That’s because scientists suspect this quantum field carries the blueprint of creation. It’s a databank of all the information from all time. All the brilliant ideas, insights, wisdom, symphonies, poems, musings and intentions are stored here. Tuning into this field grants access to the library of creation. And the only thing you have to do is be silent, tune in and download the “programs” you need.
“Real innovation,” according to German author and spiritual teacher Eckhart Tolle, “can only come from contact with the timeless space that is hidden behind form. True intelligence can only be found in silence. All other forms of creation are uninteresting copycat behaviour.” Real (life) masters don’t copy others but open themselves up to a greater intelligence. Neale Donald Walsch, author of the Conversations with God series, once said, “The question is not to whom does God talk, but who listens.” It wasn’t as simple for him as sitting down every day to take dictation from above. Sometimes his ego got in the way and he couldn’t hear a word God said.
My yogi friend put it this way: “Listening to God is the process of getting out of the way.” But who can manage that nowadays? Who, in a world where we’re doing our best to make names for ourselves and score points, has the nerve to buck the trend? What rebel has the courage to be quiet and listen?
We live in a time when in which it’s no longer the ear that dominates, but the eye. The “eye” symbolizes the male approach—the penetrating, ruling, controlling, superior, distant, business-related energy. In this type of society, there’s little room for silent, receptive, feminine energy symbolized by the womb, the earth, the yoni (a Hindu representation of the vagina as sacred), the shell of the ear.
When the “eye” isn’t kept in balance with the “ear,” it runs wild and becomes destructive. The “doing” energy wins out over silent energy. If we’re no longer able to be quiet and listen, we can’t hear our own voices or those of our fellow human beings and our greater environment. That’s downright dangerous. I can’t put it any more clearly (or beautifully) than Joachim E. Berendt, author of Nada Brahma: “The new human being will be a listening being, or he will not be at all.”
Evening falls in my silent paradise. I’ve put away my laptop. It’s time for meditation. I still remember how difficult that would have been for me 20 years ago. Back then, try as I might, I couldn’t settle my mind. Now I know it’s nearly impossible—and I know it isn’t necessary. The mind settles by itself if there’s someone willing to listen. As soon as all those voices in your head are truly heard, they stop yammering. That’s simply how voices are. It works the same with us: As long as we have the feeling that no one has heard us, we keep repeating ourselves until someone listens.
Meditation is another word for listening. The word “meditation” literally comes from two Latin words: medio, which means “centre,” and sto, “to stand.” So meditation means “to stand in the centre.” When you’re at the centre of your own realm of thought, you’re in the eye of the storm—the only place of calm. It’s an accomplishment to get there and stay there. It’s the accomplishment of not being carried away by the storm of emotions, images, desires, judgments, thoughts, habits.
If you can stand in the eye of the storm and observe all those voices from a distance, you can give them your full attention—with no fear of losing yourself. If all the voices (yours and those of others) are allowed, life itself will flow through you. You become the channel for life itself. It is as if you no longer existed (as if you were nothing), or were life itself (everything).
<< PREVIOUS
1
2
3
4
NEXT >>
view as a single page
| Tools:
Discuss
| Email
| Print
| RSS
| Weekly Newsletter Save/Share: |
Even greater than silence is meditation upon God's holy names. Every genuine religious tradition in the world teaches that God’s names are holy and meant to be glorified. The Bible contains numerous references to glorifying God and His holy name. (Exodus 15:3; Deuteronomy 32:2-3; I Chronicles 16:8-36; Psalms 29:2, 47:1, 86:11, 91:14, 96:1-3, 97:12, 98:4-6, 113:3, 116:1-17, 146:1, 148:1-5, 13)
The Lord and His name are praised throughout the Psalms. "I will praise the name of God with a song," says King David. (Psalm 69:30) In other places we read: "All nations whom Thou hast made shall come and worship before Thee, O Lord: and shall glorify Thy name." (Psalm 86:9)
"O give thanks unto the Lord; call upon His name; make known His deeds among the people. Sing unto Him, sing psalms unto Him: talk ye of all His wondrous works. Glory ye in His holy name." (Psalms 105:1-4) "...Praise Him with the timbrel and the dance; praise Him upon the loud cymbals." (Psalm 150:4-5)
Israel Baal Shem Tov (1699-1761), the great Jewish mystic, founded Hasidism, a popular pietist movement within Judaism, in which members dance and chant in glorification of God. The Hasidism were especially influenced by verses in Psalms calling for the joyful worship of the Lord through song. (Psalms 100:1,2, 104:33)
According to The Jewish Almanac: "In the Jewish tradition the name actually partakes of the essence of God. Thus, knowledge of the name is a vehicle to God, a conveyor of divine energy, an interface between the Infinite and the finite...It is curious that a tradition that places such a strong emphasis on the One God possesses such a large number of names for the divine. Each name, however, actually represents a different quality or aspect of God."
When teaching his disciples how to pray, Jesus Christ glorified God’s holy name: "Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy name." (Matthew 6:9) Jesus also approved of his disciples’ singing joyfully in praise of God. (Luke 19:36-40) Of his own name, Jesus said: "For where two or three are gathered together in my name, I am there with them." (Matthew 18:20) The apostle Paul told his gentile followers to speak to one another in psalms and hymns, to sing heartily and make music to the Lord. Ephesians 5:19) He further taught them to instruct and admonish one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. (Colossians 3:16)
Paul wrote to his gentile congregation in Rome: "For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." (Romans 10:13) According to the historian Eusebius, there was "one common consent in chanting forth the praises of God," in the early Christian churches. The Gregorian chants, popularized in the sixth century by Pope Gregory and later by works like Handel’s masterpiece the Messiah, with its resounding choruses of "hallelujah" (which means "praised be the name of God" in Hebrew), are still performed and appreciated all over the world.
In addition to praising the Lord’s name and glories through music, song, and dance, there has also emerged the practice of meditating upon God by chanting upon beads of prayer. St. John Chrysostom of the Greek Orthodox church, recommended the "prayerful invocation of the name of God," which he said should be "uninterrupted."
The repetition of the Jesus prayer ("Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me") became a regular practice among members of the Eastern Church. In The Way of a Pilgrim, a Russian monk describes this form of meditation: "The continuous interior prayer of Jesus is a constant, uninterrupted calling upon the divine name of Jesus with the lips, in the spirit, in the heart...One who accustoms himself to this appeal experiences...so deep a consolation and so great a need to offer the prayer always, that he can no longer live without it."
"Perhaps you’ve heard about Hesychasm, a technique of mantra meditation that was employed by Christians as far back as the third century after Christ," says the Reverend Alvin Hart, an Episcopalian priest in New York. "The method was the simple chanting of ‘the Jesus prayer,’ which runs like this: ‘Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy upon me.’ I personally have found great comfort in this mantra."
According to Reverend Hart, "Although it was recently popularized by the New Age movement...’the Jesus Prayer’ has a long and venerable tradition in the Philokalia, an important book on Christian mysticism. The word Philokalia literally means ‘the love of spiritual beauty,’ and I can say that the book definitely brings its readers to that level of appreciation...
Reverend Hart says, "When we call on God—and we should learn how to do this at every moment, even in the midst of our day-to-day work—we should be conscious of Him, and then our prayer will have deeper effects, deeper meaning. This, I know, is the basic idea of Krishna Consciousness. In the Christian tradition, too, we are told to ALWAYS pray ceaselessly. This is a biblical command. (I Thessalonians 5:17)
"In a sense, this could also be considered the heart of the Christian process as well. For instance, in the Latin Mass, before the Gospel is read, there is a prayer spoken by the priest: dominus sit in corde meo et in labiis meis, which means, ‘May the Lord be in my heart and on my lips.’ What better way is there to have God on one’s lips than by chanting the holy name? Therefore, the Psalms tell us that from ‘the rising of the sun to its setting’ the Lord’s name is to be praised. And Paul echoes this idea by telling us that ‘whoever calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.’ (Romans 10:13)"
In Islam, the names of God are held sacred and meditated upon. According to tradition, there are ninety-nine names of Allah, found inscribed upon monuments such as the Taj Mahal and on the walls of mosques. These names are chanted on an Islamic rosary, which consists of three sets of thirty-three beads.
The Sikh religion is a blend of Hinduism and Islam. The Sikhs emphasize the name of God, calling Him "Nama," or "the Name." Guru Nanak, the founder of the Sikh religion, prayed, "In the ambrosial hours of the morn I meditate on the grace of the true Name," and says that he was instructed by God in a vision to "Go and repeat My Name, and cause others to do likewise."
Rosaries are used in Buddhism. Members of Japan’s largest Buddhist order, the Pure Land sect, practice repetition of the name of the compassionate Buddha ("namu amida butsu"). Founder, Shinran Shonin says, "The virtue of the Holy Name, the gift of him that is enlightened, is spread throughout the world." Followers believe that through the name of Buddha a worshipper is liberated from repeated birth and death and joins the Buddha in the "Pure Land."
posted by vasumurti on 7/15/2008 2:20 pm