You are always silence; that is your essence. But you have forgotten that. You are thinking you are a thousand and one different things, that you are not. But in your center, you are the one you always have been.
When all these thousands of ideas and dreams are leaving you, when you are unpolluted by any thoughts or mind, then you can see for the first time how it is to live a life in freedom.
Silence has come to Dharma Mountain. It reveals the silent sounds of nature, too often drowned out by the bustle and noise of modern life. The sound of the breeze rustling the leaves. The sound of the swallows chirping as they chase each other playfully around the sky. The sound of our own breath, constantly bringing us back to ourselves as we tune in to its deep, peaceful rhythm.
Silence of the full moon, the symbol of the master, giving light to the paths of the disciples. Silence to hear the words of the Beloved as he drops them into the calm waters of our consciousness, to spread ripples of awareness in the bright sunshine of his love.
In silent sitting, we feel our presence. In silent eating, we sense our taste. In silent walking we are aware of our path. In silent doing we find our center.
In this sacred silence everything becomes more clear, more focused, more real. The tricks of the mind are easier to hear. There is nowhere for it to hide. The silence amplifies its ramblings, its constant attempts to pull us away from the moment, into the illusions of past and future. To fill us with doubts, worries and fears.
In the silence of now, there is the space to see clearly, to breathe deeply and allow the peace to flood through us. Then we come more in tune with the silence of the Buddha – watchful, silent, eternal.
