Shall you include some silence in your plans for the Summer? I have a personal ritual of taking a day or two in silence. Usually between Christmas and New Year. Sometimes if the timing is right (and family members engaged with their own adventures) I may find myself silent for a full day .. but more often it is just a few hours here and there. But even if not alone, I try to include a personal commitment to inner silence.
Seeking to listen more than talk. Pause more than rush. Open more than closed.
I am often asked about going on a meditation retreat .. and 'what about those 10-day silent retreats' I keep getting asked? are they any good?
I have completed a number of one and two day silent retreats, and one day soon plan to tick off the Vipassana 10 day retreat .. even a day of silence can be pretty intense and challenging .. and enlightening. After a long period of sitting, listening, observing, being distracted, returning and being distracted again (a thousand times over) all in silence, alone, with oneself .. we find that our mind does almost blow open and therein lies the magic.
MeiMei Fox (author and freelance editor, who also writes for The Huffington Post)recently posted a great video '10 Ways Meditation Can Change Your Life' ..a “light-hearted day-by-day recounting of my first Vipassana experience"
“Even if you’re terrified, even if you have no interest in being a monk and you’re not an extremist by nature, I know that sitting in silence for 10 days will blow your mind".
MeiMei has attended three such silent retreats .. “And when you come out the other side, you will feel a tremendous sense of freedom. You will know, really know in your heart, that you are your own master. This practice dos not rely on belief in any gods, trust in any higher power, or the blessings of any guru or teacher. It is simply about you learning to tame your own wild mind. How incredibly liberating is that?”
Some days, in my cyber-wanders, I literally trip over little gems of wisdom .. hidden just beneath the surface of day to day life. Meandering along, dipping in and out, and then woops I trip .. and have to stop and think a moment. Contemplate. Be still. A converging of thought, a synchronistic occurrence .. and so I think I will start an 'Inspired by .. ' post .. for these magical moments.
Mama-Om spoke today of her Begin with Silence days .. having experienced a silent retreat (Vipassana tradition) she decided to bring 'home' the experience to her actually family home life. So the family now embraces some 'Begin with Silence' days .. an intention to try to start those days, and all the interactions and tasks of the day, with silence. More than just not talking .. this mindfulness practice allows us some spaciousness to just 'be' with others (and ourselves) and stop filling the house/mind with chatter and babble. When we do move in silence we can listen more deeply and openly to others .. and also 'hear' why perhaps we talk so much (and our motivation for talking so much).
I too like silence .. more and more as I grow older .. there is an centeredness in silence that I yearn for. I have spoken previously of those Golden Moments of Silence when 'more than just holding our tongue we listen for the softest, most subtle sound of all - the sound of the soul'. In meditation 'rather than straining to quiet the mind .. we can simply relax into the quiet that contains the mind' Silence and Listening.
Mama-Om's post has inspired me to speak with my bella ... she's reluctant (as a teenager can be to everything) .. but I shall start and see how we go with a Begin with Silence day tomorrow .. will you try too? .. tell me how it goes.
