Why Silence?

Here are some folks questioning the purpose and experience of Silence, being answered by folks who have tried Silence and find It working for them.  These answers are paraphrases from individuals in my meditation and healing practice.

Why would you ever sit in Silence when there are ever so many other more interesting things to do?

Because in Silence, nothing is expected of me.  In Silence, I feel at ease, safe with no one asking anything of me. Perhaps that is a lot like hiding but when I come out of it, I don’t feel like I have run away.  I feel like I have run towards something that perhaps I don’t fully get but I know is great and it feels trust worthy.  Also, increasingly, the myriad of “interesting things” in my life is not helping me become more peaceful.   As long as I “do things”, I feel worthy, productive, competent and focused.  I feel more in control.  However when I stop, I know I am not in control.  It feels good to sit in Silence where there are no control games going on or even the pretense of those running in the background.  I love to do this in the woods, or at the beach.   It seems like a whole other way of  being.

I don’t see myself ever seeking Silence because my mind won’t settle down when I stop running from one thing to another.  There never seems to be any peace in Silence for me.

When I first stopped doing, thinking, running around, working,  to enter into Silence , my mind only knew how to keep thinking thoughts.  That is exactly what it continued to do.   I focused on my breath going in and out or sometimes on a candle flame or on the blank wall, and let my mind go.  Eventually , my thoughts silenced themselves because I gave them no attention.  Then real peace set in.  I would find myself  simply swirling along, not aware of time at all.  There is a great sense of floating at times and of taking a real break from demands, lists, concerns and responsibilities.  When I come out,  I am usually more centered and less frantic.  I’d like to be free of worry and concerns,  all day long.  In the meantime, I am getting healthier, while I practice getting there.

What could possibly be in Silence that I can’t get from putting my energy and efforts on what I like to do?

…perhaps a space where just being is a nice state.   It is a great relief to be able to sit in Silence and simply be there.  It is like taking a short nap for me.  I usually come out refreshed and feeling lighter.  I have no idea how that happens but I experience it again and again.  What I find in Silence is more space to be.  If I find that I can’t get away from issues and stuff from my daily life, I name them out loud and escort them back “outside the doorway to the Silence” and leave them there.  They are always there when I finish my quiet time but they are often different in ways, less pressing or I have some clarity about how to respond.  I really don’t know how this works, but it does.   I don’t get this type of refresher in the day just running around doing things on my list.  I like the sense of entering Silence and coming out of it, both.  It works for me.

Why would I ever consider Silence, I don’t like to be alone usually and I find it boring in the extreme.

Intentional Silence is completely different from being alone.  For me, I go into Silence to connect with a Greater Whole which I don’t fully get but know is probably there.  I never feel alone because I go with the intention of connecting with Divine Energy.   I don’t know about boring.  I did have to learn to be still and listen to the Silence.  There is a different kind of knowing there which I am slowly getting.  In the beginning though, it was simply a place of Peace for me.

I don’t like Silence because I don’t know what to expect and I can’t really figure out what I am suppose to be doing there.

That is a great reason to keep going there.  We don’t know what to expect most of the time in life.  I often get thrown when things do not go as I expect.  In Silence, I simply sit and am quiet and things happen in that space in a very different way than in my daily life.  I get the sense that the hardest issues for me to learn can be learned there.  I often get gentle nudges or hunches which help me when I leave that space.  I don’t know what I am supposed to be doing there for sure, but I go there because I feel better when I do.  I get to be there doing nothing, having no rights or wrongs in that space.  When I come out, I am more able to roll along with things rather than feeling I need to control them.   That has been great for me.

When my doctor asked me how I brought my blood pressure down without medicine after 10 years of it being too high, I told him through spiritual clearing and healing in Silence.  He just rolled his eyes.

But really, that is what I did.  I began sitting in Silence and when things came up which were stressful, I named them usually as a fear,  called out the blocked energy around them and asked for them to be consumed from my energy field. This process has worked for me, big time. Then I usually enjoy my Silence after I do my release work.  My blood pressure I guess was related to all the stress I was  carrying when I got angry, irritated or frustrated.  Maybe my cells just settled down as all those things left my energy field, who knows.  Anyway, my doctor is happy and I think I am a lot healthier all around.  ( for more on how to name and release) http://robbinshopkins.com/2009/09/calling-out-impatience-part-2/

Other Responses to Why Silence?

When I finally got to entering Silence on my own, I found it amazing that when I came out, I was clearer about the issues I was facing even though they were not specifically addressed by me in that Silence.

I found myself always making excuses for myself as to why I was drinking too much until in Silence I found a place to connect in stillness and within the quiet.  I then began to be able to consider getting help for my drinking habits.

When I was really lost, in a situation I was completely confounded by, doing things that were unfamiliar and sometimes unpleasant for me, I could always take 5 minutes in Silence and know I was still connected to the Greater Whole.

When I got to Silence even for a short time daily,   I began to see that my temper was less explosive and my language was more even, even the curse words dropped out in time.  Some type of peace was coming over me just by a few minutes in Silence.

Try Silence for several days, a few minutes at the time and then keep giving it to yourself, as a gift.  You are actually giving Divine Presence/Greater Whole/All That Is/your “I AM Presence” a chance to send you Love so that you will have more Light to bring to your body, your affairs and your thoughts. Love creates Light which heals us completely.  Sometimes we just aren’t creating enough Love of our “I AM Presence”/own True Self /Core Eternal Being  for us to generate enough Light to feel balanced, centered, content and whole.  When you enter into Silence:

1. set an intention ( say it out loud)  to connect with All That Is

2. to receive healing Love

3. to experience inner Peace, with time

When you leave Silence give thanks for whatever happened for you in that time, regardless of whether you think if was good or bad, well done or botched, helpful or unhelpful.  Appearances often deceive us.  Being in Silence with these intentions is ALWAYS HEALING even if we can’t see it in the beginning or on a specific day.