B.A. (Honours), London, M.A. (London),Dr.Litt.(Utrecht), F.R.A.S.
At some point in one'sspiritual progress an urge to silence arises uninvited; a wave thatcarries the mind self-wards, atman-wards.
In all spiritual traditions theaspirant is assigned periods of silence, not to speak of the masterswho have maintained total silence for their entirelife-spans.
Silence is not merely an absence of speech. It isa fullness of the mind; the mind filled with the flow of an energystream rising from within. For such a silence one needs guidance,because there is a science to practising silence that many are notaware of.
It is in such methodical and guided silence thatone's pent up emotions do not keep arising and disturbing one,bringing one to tears now, to laughter then, and to an urge to quitthe retreat or the Ashram and just run away (this happens after thethird day of the retreat to many participants). The guide to thesilence retreat takes care of the problem from within theTradition.
Silence is the practice of the science ofself-healing even if one is not impelled by a strong spiritual urge.Let us look at it this way. What is speech, physically speaking ? Place your open palm in front of the lips and speak a few sentences.You will find that speech comes in the form of erratic bursts ofbreath. Speech is jerky breath. It means that when we speak ourentire internal system is being jerked, the lungs, the heart, theblood pressure, navel centre, and diaphragm muscle (the chiefbreathing organ of the body), not to speak of the mind itself. Quiterightly, then, when we want someone to stop talking we say in English: Save your breath ! Don't waste your breath !
Silence is the art of longevity. The human lifespan is not measured in years; it is measured in the number ofbreaths allotted karmically. How long would one live ? It all dependson how quickly, by fast and jerky breathing, one may choose to spendout one's allotment. Or one may spend it slowly and invest a majorportion to cultivate even a deeper silence, to have yet more toinvest.
The science of silence, a guided silence, includesmany steps, for example :
-- Using the breath to enter the state of mentalsilence;
-- Calming the emotions so that the urge to speakmay not arise;
-- Using silence for self-healing so that theenergies commonly leaked in the process of speech may be absorbed,assimilated, channelled.
For example, unless one learns to breathe withouta jerk, one cannot enter into silence. Mastering the pause betweenthe breaths not only leads to kevala-kumbhaka (see Swami VedaBharati's Commentary on the 2nd chapter of the Yoga-sutras, II. 51).It
-- leads one into deep interiorsilence;
-- Makes one a conqueror of the forces oftime;
-- Grants the mastery over death.
But how does one master the pause between thebreaths? That is for a silence and meditation guide to teach. ASilence Retreat with Swami Veda Bharati includes
-- Hatha in a meditative context, guided by hisassistants (see his book : Philosophy of Hatha Yoga;
-- Guided meditations, so deep that hours may passwithout one noticing the passage of time;
-- Time for pranayama;
-- Spiritual journaling;
-- Contemplative walk, guided as to the differentmethods (see Swami Veda's booklet : Contemplative Walk.
-- Learning the rudiments of the science ofsleeping : for example, not entering from wakefulness into sleepthrough the pathways of fantasies and reveries but throughmeditation; not emerging from sleep through tossing and turning butthrough the channel of the meditation state.
A silence retreat is not for learning"techniques". Oh, would someone write a book about the correcttechnique for smiling, after full scientific investigation of whathormones are released when the lips are stretched quarter of an inchon both sides as against half an inch (need a control group, right?)!! Write the book if your ambition is to make all smiles vanish fromthe earth. Techniques and methods are boats that have to be leftbehind after a certain river crossing &endash; only for now the boatis needed. A silence retreat is for, sadhana, intensive spiritualpurification for progress.
The ideal silence retreat for a seriouspractitioner begins at ten days duration. Make it twelve days; oneday for arrival; ten days for washing the mind's fabric in theinfinity stream; twelfth day for departure. Often, a teacher mayincrease it to fifteen days. Quite often at our Rishikesh Ashram,when a novice arrives with the intention of intensive sadhana, andasks for his personally tailored programme, s/he is told : noschedule for three days. Just sleep, exercise, walk, sleep again; getall the fatigue out of your system, otherwise you will sit formeditation and nod off or will lie for shava-asana practice and willsnore. One carries enormous amount of fatigue in the body besides allthe emotions that we store in our muscles. All these need to berinsed before one can meditate.
A silence guide embraces the participants intohis/her own field of silence, and becomes a channel for the gracethat ever flows from the ancient lineage of the Himalayan masters.
Servant of the Servants of theMasters
Copyright 2003 West-Art, Prometheus90/2003