Random thoughts on Silence

They say the Universe began with the Word and will end the day it melts into silence. Just wondering how life on earth starts with silence and ends in silence.... and how many feelings and stances in life, silence can convey, so effortlessly, in the days in between. Music systems worldwide, classical and otherwise have always had a very hallowed place for silence. Yet different cultures and different times seem to accord different status to its place in our lives. Asian cultures traditionally seem to have a deep-seated reverence to silence, whilst the Western world seems to look at it as a void that must be filled up as soon as possible, even before it is detected. Popular culture seems to associate negative connotations of rudeness or inadequacy with it.

As a child, when I went to my father with a request (not brave enough for a plea) to send me on the school picnic or college study tour, his silence said it all.

I remember when I was still engaged to be married, my nightly ritual of a long-distance call to my fiancé comprised of a large dose of intermittent silence. After a long hard day’s work, to both of us, that silence was more eloquent than anything else between us. We were actually OK with burning huge holes in our pockets to hear each other’s silence!

When talking of conflict resolution, people suggest talking things out across a table. What do you discuss with a person who intentionally hurts or harms you or undercuts you? What use any words, other than hotting up each other’s tempers? Silence is the weapon of choice here. Strange isn’t it, this concept of silence as a weapon?

Silence is the accompaniment for meditation of the highest levels. Whatever else people do to express their faith or communicate with worldly and other-worldly powers, silence is the ultimate accomplice in this act. Eckhart Tolle in his “Power of Now” talks of gaps in your thoughts – isn’t he referring to the silence of our minds? Is this, what learned minds across timezones and from times immemorial told us about looking inside of us – to find our real selves. So, is silence in a way, a mirror to our real selves?