Silence is the Launching Pad for Action
And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music. — Attributed to Friedrich W. Nietzsche
You could substitute any activity that is meaningful to you for dancing. For example: And those who were seen knitting were thought to be insane by those who could not see the yarn. Or, And those who were seen playing marbles were thought to be insane by those who could not see the round pieces of glass rolling on the floor. One more, And those who were seen deeply listening were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the words, the Word.
Anyway, have a go at it with your favorite activity.
I often return to the opening quote when life seems a bit overwhelming and my higher instincts are suggesting that I engage in deeper reflection so that I’m able to transcend what appears as reality instead of another Reality. Ignoring those signals have created less than desirable results in the past; so I pay attention much sooner in my quests and queries for truth.
I’m always a bit cautious when I reveal my moments of revelation thinking I may be thought of as insane, but since Evelyn Underhill’s understanding of Reality has begun to resonate with me I’ll simply share my insights based on personal experience. And remember, it’s not just her wisdom and experience of God; there are other examples in the writings of Howard Thurman, Dr. Barbara A. Holmes, Mirabai Starr, Beverly Lanzetta, and Kabir Edmund Helminski, who wrote:
We Spiritualize the mind by freeing it from domination of its superficial and ego-bound preoccupations.
In one of his profound explorations Howard Thurman deliberates on the idea of goodness. He reflects on the last words of a poem by Charles Naylor who poses the question: Should I be good because of some reward, / Because the virtuous act pays dividends? Throughout the essay expounding on the virtue of goodness for its own sake, Thurman responds “No! I shall do good, because it is good.”
That’s probably a hard sell in our consumer-driven society where we expect to get something in return for our good deeds. Constantly, we are led to believe to inquire, what’s in it for us? Perhaps the answer is merely, it’s the right thing to do. That’s the payback! The mere act of living (w)holy is a significant part of the journey of expecting nothing in return. And of course, the desire to act out of love having no attachment to the gift of giving is something worth pondering, discovering and exploring.
Silence is one of the door ways to releasing and clearing our thoughts for what may appear to be reward-less service. I’ll admit that long term silence is not something I go running toward. Reveling in background classical music can send me into a creative streak for hours. However, a few weeks ago, if you’ve been following my blog I explored SILENCE for 36 hours. For the first time (after numerous attempts) I discovered a restfulness and a spaciousness. I was reticent to engage in this activity because there were many deadlines that I had missed and I was experiencing some anxiety that I thought would make being in silence nearly unbearable. But that was not the case. Once I settled myself the silence was fortifying and regenerative.
Perhaps this happened because I wasn’t expecting anything. The imprint this particular experience of silence had on my soul is not something that can easily be put into words. So, as time passes I’ll make vague allusions to that experience. If you’ve not sat in silence for any length of time before, I wouldn’t recommend starting with 36 hours initially, as my many ventures prior to this were difficult to say the very least! However, all the people above are advocates of silence.
According to Evelyn Underhill that is where its at! Unconsciously you may have felt the silence as close as your skin and heard it as the distant whirring sound of an airplane.
What is required to feel and hear in the silence? To pay attention. You have to realize your own soul. This essence is a movement to which Walt Whitman speaks:
You air that serves me with breath to speak! / You objects that call from diffusion my meanings and give them shape ! / You light that wraps me and all things in delicate equable showers! / You paths worn in irregular hollows by the roadsides! / I believe you are latent with unseen existences, you are so dear to me.
When you consider the amount of noise and other distractions we are inundated with on a daily basis; again, silence might be a hard sell. I can only say that I’m a lot calmer, creative, and kinder after a period of silence and stillness, which you might find hard to believe, because as a dancer, I love moving, a lot. But, a few of minutes in silence, here and there throughout your day makes a huge difference between responding with kindness or reacting with meanness.
It might be something you want to experiment with for 21 days. Before each transition you make in your day take a couple of minutes of silence and notice what is going on with your body, in your breath, behavior, or levels of physical tension. Be curious and aware.
As another world is yearning to be born it will serve us well if some of us can consciously acquire the spiritual discipline of silence throughout our day. Raising our frequency will help raise that of others even though they may not be aware of what is happening. Their reality may look the same to them.
And besides in the past those considered insane were messengers and truth-speakers of the potential Reality that was emerging.
Perhaps we can obtain some consolation and hope through the words of Rainer Maria Rilke:
…moments when something new has entered into us, something unknown; our feelings grow mute in shy perplexity, everything in us withdraws, a stillness comes, and the new which no one knows, stands in the midst of it and is silent…. I believe that almost all of our sadnesses are moments of tension that we find paralyzing because we no longer hear our surprised feelings living. Because we are alone with the alien that has entered our self; because everything intimate and accustomed is for an instant taken away; because we stand in the middle of a transition where we cannot remain standing.
After standing strong in the momentary silence we are called to action—that is the way of the contemplative.