Silence: The Power of Quiet in a World Full of Noise

When feeling lonely or anxious, most of us have the habit of looking for distractions, which often leads to some form of unwholesome consumption -- whether eating a snack in the absence of hunger, mindlessly surfing the Internet, going on a drive, or reading. Conscious breathing is a good way to nourish body and mind with mindfulness.

Waking up this morning I smile.        Twenty-four brand-new hours are before me.        I vow to live them deeply and learn to look at everything around me with the eyes of compassion.

All the wonders of life are already here. They’re calling you. If you can listen to them, you will be able to stop running. What you need, what we all need, is silence. Stop the noise in your mind in order for the wondrous sounds of life to be heard. Then you can begin to live your life authentically and deeply.

While walking, for example, if we are talking or thinking at the same time, we get caught up in the conversation or thoughts we’re having and get lost in the past or the future, our worries or our projects. People can easily spend their entire lives doing just that. What a tragic waste! Let us instead really live these moments that are given to us. In order to be able to live our life, we have to stop that radio inside, turn off our internal discourse. How can we enjoy our steps if our attention is given over to all that mental chatter? It’s important to become aware of what we feel, not just what we think. When we touch the ground with our foot, we should be able to feel our foot making contact with the ground. When we do this, we can feel a lot of joy in just being able to walk. When we walk, we can invest all our body and mind into our steps and be fully concentrated in each precious moment of life. In focusing on that contact with the earth, we stop being dragged around by our thoughts and begin to experience our body and our environment in a wholly different way. Our body is a wonder! Its functioning is the result of millions of processes. We can fully appreciate this only if we stop our constant thinking and have enough mindfulness and concentration to be in touch with the wonders of our body, the Earth, and the sky.

When we surround ourselves with people who are committed to understanding and loving, we’re nourished by their presence and our own seeds of understanding and love are watered. When we surround ourselves with people who gossip, complain, and are constantly critical, we absorb these toxins.

When you ask the question, “Who am I?”—if you have enough time and concentration—you may find some surprising answers. You may see that you are a continuation of your ancestors. Your parents and your ancestors are fully present in every cell of your body; you are their continuation. You don’t have a separate self. If you remove your ancestors and your parents from you, there’s no “you” left. You may see that you’re made of elements, like water for example. If you remove the water from you, there’s no “you” left. You’re made of earth. If you remove the element earth from you, there’s no “you” left. You’re made of air. You need air desperately; without air you cannot survive. So if you remove the element of air from you, there’s no “you” left. And there’s the fire element, the element of heat, the element of light, in you. You know that you are made of light. Without sunlight, nothing can grow on Earth. If you continue to look, you see that you are made of the sun, one of the biggest stars in the galaxy. And you know that the Earth, as well as yourself, is made of the stars. So you are the stars. On a clear night, look up, and you can see that you are the stars above. You’re not just the tiny body you normally may think of as “yourself.

We can feel lonely even when we’re surrounded by many people. We are lonely together. There is a vacuum inside us. We don’t feel comfortable with that vacuum, so we try to fill it up or make it go away. Technology supplies us with many devices that allow us to “stay connected.” These days, we are always “connected,” but we continue to feel lonely.

It is good to spend some time physically alone each day as well. You might think that you can be joyful only when you are with other people, talking and laughing and playing around. But joy and happiness can be very great in solitude as well—so deep that you are more able to share. If you have deep joy and happiness, developed in solitude, then you have a lot to give. Without the capacity for being alone, you become more and more depleted. And when you don’t have enough nourishment for yourself, you don’t have much to offer others. That’s why learning to live in solitude is important.

Even when we're sitting still, with no external stimuli, an endless internal dialogue may be going on in our head. we're constantly consuming our thoughts. Cows, goats, and buffalo chew their food, swallow it, then regurgitate and rechew it multiple times. We may not be cows or buffalo, but we ruminate just the same on our thoughts - unfortunately, primarily negative thoughts. We eat them, and then we bring them up to chew again and again, like a cow chewing its cud.

Don’t ask me anything more. My essence is wordless.

There are four kinds of food that every person consumes every day. In Buddhism, we call these kinds of food the Four Nutriments. They are edible food; sense impressions; volition; and consciousness, both individual and collective.

it’s nice if everyone sits down together to enjoy three sounds of the bell, nine times of breathing in and out. People practicing breathing with a small bell in this way are able to enjoy much peace and harmony together. That is what I call true civilization. You don’t need a lot of modern gadgets in order to be civilized. You need only a small bell, a quiet space, and your mindful in-breath and out-breath.

There’s a radio playing in our head, Radio Station NST: Non-Stop Thinking. Our mind is filled with noise, and that’s why we can’t hear the call of life, the call of love. Our heart is calling us, but we don’t hear. We don’t have the time to listen to our heart.

The basic condition for us to be able to hear the call of beauty and respond to it is silence.

What are you ruminating on? Old suffering?

To fully experience this life as a human being, we all need to connect with our desire to realize something larger than our individual selves.

Don’t agonize over the past, because the past is gone. Don’t worry about the future, because the future is not yet here.

Consciously choosing what and who you surround yourself with is among the keys to finding more space for joy.

for the sharing to be useful and good, you have to be prepared to say something like, “I have made mistakes. I have thought, spoken, and acted in ways that have harmed our happiness and damaged our connection.

Eres lo que sientes y percibes. Si estás enojado, eres enojo. Si estás enamorado, eres amor. Si miras la cumbre nevada de una montaña, eres la montaña. Mientras sueñas, eres el sueño.

Often our thinking goes around and around in circles, so we lose all our joy in living.

You can choose what to focus on, and therefore what to be. You can choose to be your in-breath and out-breath. You can choose to listen with your whole being to the sound of the rain or the wind, and in some way to be one with the rain or the wind. Listening to sounds in this way can be very joyful. When you are in touch with these refreshing and healing elements, you are being, and not thinking.

Al inhalar, soy consciente del aire. Al exhalar, disfruto respirando el aire. (Consciente del aire. Disfrutando.) Al inhalar, soy consciente del sol. Al exhalar, le sonrío al sol. (Consciente del sol. Sonriendo.) Al inhalar, soy consciente de los árboles. Al exhalar, le sonrío a los árboles. (Consciente de los árboles. Sonriendo.) Al inhalar, soy consciente de los niños. Al exhalar, les sonrío a los niños. (Consciente de los niños. Sonriendo.) Al inhalar, soy consciente del aire campestre. Al exhalar, le sonrío al aire campestre. (Aire campestre. Sonriendo.)

Al leer este libro, al meditar, no lo haces para adquirir conceptos e ideas, sino para desprenderte de ellos. No reemplaces tus antiguos conceptos e ideas por otros nuevos. Deja de perseguir un concepto tras otro de felicidad, intercambiando una idea por otra.

«El pasado ya se ha ido. El futuro todavía está por llegar. Hay solo un momento en el que podéis estar realmente vivos: es el momento presente. Si lo vivís plenamente, seréis libres».

Solo cuando el mar está en calma y quietud vemos la luna reflejada en el agua. El silencio llega del corazón y no de ninguna serie de condiciones externas. Vivir en un estado de silencio no significa no hablar nunca, ni participar en nada o no hacer ninguna cosa, sino simplemente no estar agitado por dentro, ni mantener una constante cháchara interior. Si hay un verdadero silencio en ti, sea cual sea la situación en la que te encuentres, siempre disfrutarás de la deliciosa espaciosidad del silencio.

Como cada tipo de alimento te afecta enormemente, es importante ser consciente de lo que consumes y de la cantidad consumida. Es fundamental para protegerte. Si no te proteges, absorberás demasiadas toxinas. Si no prestas atención, te llenarás sin darte cuenta de percepciones y sonidos tóxicos que te harán enfermar. La plena conciencia es como una crema solar que protege tu sensible piel de recién nacido. Sin ella, se cubriría de ampollas y quemaduras. La protección de la plena conciencia te permite estar sano y seguro y absorber solo los nutrientes que te ayudan a progresar.