VBT – Meditation 9.4
Only Silence Can Be Heard
Listen to the Universe in deep silence, in deep awareness.
Can silence be heard and understood?
Only silence can be heard and understood. Words can be heard but only superficially, and can be understood – but only intellectually. Silence is heard existentially and is understood from your innermost being. It is a total understanding.
Why we have asked the question, because ordinarily we understand only words. We are prepared to understand only words, not silence. We are educated to understand language and all its complexities. Nobody helps us to go beyond language, to go beyond words, to reach the wordless space within us.
Society is against it, because if you can hear silence you will not be a part of the crowd mind, of the collective mind. You will become an individual immediately. And an individual is a danger to the state, to the church, to the society. An individual is always dangerous, because an individual is nothing but rebellion. His very presence is a risk for all the vested interests, for the establishment. The establishment wants you to be obedient: he wants you to understand the orders. The establishment wants you to be slaves, servants – efficient, of course, but not too intelligent; just intellectual, not intelligent.
Silence is the explosion of intelligence. Silence means: inside you, you are just spaciousness, uncluttered spaciousness. Silence means you have put aside the whole furniture of the mind – the thoughts, the desires, the memories, the fantasies, the dreams, you have all pushed aside. You are just looking into existence directly, immediately. You are in contact with existence without anything in between you and existence. That is silence.
And to be in tune with existence even for a single moment—is enough to make you aware of many things. One is that you, are deathless, and the person who is deathless cannot be forced to be a slave. He would rather like to die than to become a slave. He would rather like to risk everything than to risk his freedom because death means nothing to him….
The moment you understand that you are eternal, all fear disappears. And the society exists through exploiting your fear; hence, it teaches you from the school to the university, it devotes almost one-third of your life in learning words, language, logic. It is not concerned at all that you should understand silence. That’s the function of a Master: to undo all that the society has done to you, to help you to go beyond words.
And you can experience it happening NOW – you can hear the silence. And when you hear it, there is immediate understanding. Understanding comes like a shadow following silence.
To understand words and to hear words is very simple. Anybody can do it; just a little education about language is needed, nothing much. But a tremendous transformation is needed to hear silence and to understand silence…. Silence is the basic requirement of understanding God, the basic requirement to know truth….
Silence can be profane too. Silence can be sacred too. Silence has as many nuances, as many dimensions as your being has. It is multidimensional, and it is tremendously pregnant.
All situations are being used to hear a few pieces of silence.
The silence all around will go on goading you to keep alert. The silence all around will not in any way allow you to fall asleep. Silence has its own tremendous force, its own power.
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