We are habituated to noise.

Posted on by Live & Learn

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“By embarking on the spiritual path, an aspirant is attempting to encounter silence firsthand. This is the quintessential journey in life–the inner sojourn. It is returning to a source long ago forgotten but often glimpsed at moment unawares. Recapturing that which flitters on the periphery of awareness is the goal of the mystic. …The mystic consciously dives into silence, at first unfelt. With repeated practice it becomes a living, palpable Presence filled with immeasurable vitality and boundless, nondual continuity. But what causes this gradual revelation?

First we need to discover why we do not experience silence. The simplest answer is that we are habituated to noise. We are addicted to novelty, sensation, to ourselves. Fuss and commotion, mental chattering, and outer stimulation occupy our minds from dawn to dusk. The twentieth-century Japanese Zen master Nan-in rightly noted that we are overflowing with our own ideas and opinions; to learn Zen we must first empty our minds. But there is no room for such emptiness. When one is clattering away on a keyboard sixteen hours every day, the capacious pockets of silence are kept well at bay. We thereby deafen ourselves to the underlying silence we would otherwise clearly hear.

By intentionally quieting our restless minds and calling a temporary halt to the random noise–inner and outer–to which we are subject, we create an environment conducive to the manifestations of silence. Welling up from within, this silence subtly engulfs us, drowning out all the noise of existence. The Jewish mystics refer to God as “ayin,” nothingness. When we quell the somethingness of our lives, this nothingness emerges. But as long as we dwell in the realm of substance, it remains elusive.”

–John Roger Barrie, in Parabola Magazine: “Silence.” 

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28 thoughts on “We are habituated to noise.”

  1. It is so true – the comfort of turning it all off and tuning into whatever the silence sounds like at any given time. To me though that it’s – the silence is not quiet either.

  5. Aaahhhh….so synchronistic for me. I just contemplated the same thoughts in my past this morning. And I love the way you have voice to that which I left unsaid. Thank you!!! ❤

  7. To meet with essential nothingness requires self discipline. Practice the quell until we can dwell in the quiet place where truth and wholeness don’t even have to whisper- they just are. Let me put that appointment in my calendar first- for that meeting will have me drinking at the wellspring of life.

  8. i have made it a personal goal to spend time in silence each and every single day. both inside and out. and it is a challenge, though it truly becomes easier and more natural over time. i’ve come to find a comfort in this elusive state of nothing. and it is everything.

  12. Wonderful explanation of quietude!!!!!!! Though I practice these wonderful elements, it is truly a challenge living 50 years with a man born “Year of the Rooster”!!!!! Country music radio always blaring, I’ve learned to utilize it as a Zen tool!!!!!

  13. I can relate to lavernjdewilde, though with my husband, it is the news. He turns the t.v. on first thing in the morning and we watch the news up until we fall asleep at night. My requests to remove the t.v. from the bedroom have fallen on deaf ears (no pun intended). So, I find other ways to be in silence, including during my daily commute home from the office. And finding silence does get easier with practice, though I wouldn’t have believed it.

  14. Love this…

    “…When we quell the somethingness of our lives, this nothingness emerges…”.

    And that at one point, nothingness intimidated me. No more…it’s always welcome now.

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