Silence in Meditation

Hello, my name is Michelle, and welcome to episode 10, on Silence in Meditation Practice. So, apologies for my sore throat. My voice sounds probably husky and deeper than usual.

So, let's start with a five-minute silent meditation practice.

Find a place where you can sit comfortably. Where you won't be disturbed.

And don't worry about any external or internal conditions that are present here now. Silent Meditation doesn't require perfect or ideal conditions.

If we wait for ideal internal or external conditions to meditate, we'll be waiting forever. So, let's start somewhere, anywhere, no matter where or what the moment is like, here and now.

As best you can at this moment in time. Sitting still for a while and see if you can experience some silence.

Becoming aware of whatever is in front of your gaze, having a relaxed, soft gaze downwards, and becoming aware of what's going on inside of you as well.

This is natural, because when we're silent, we become more aware of things. Because silence brings awakening and awareness. So let's sit with our own silence, just as it is, and not worry too much about it.

Back in the present moment.

Perhaps slightly more present. More self-aware.

So there are many different forms of meditation. And in this episode, I'm speaking about silence in sitting meditation practice.

As a pathway to inner peace and self-discovery. By self-discovery, I don't mean any ego project. I mean becoming your true nature. Well, you already are, so you can't become it, but resting in your true nature.

So on the surface level of the mind, on the ego level of the psyche, which is the surface of the mind, it may seem that silence refers to an absence of noise, both the absence of external noises, and the absence of internal noises, internal chatter.

Silence has nothing to do with either thought or no thought, feelings or no feelings, sensations or no sensations, and nothing to do with noise or no noise. It doesn't require any contrived effort to achieve some special state of mind or state of being. So there's no trying to get rid of thoughts, no rising above thinking.

And you don't necessarily have to be mindful of any specific object of meditation, such as your anchor or your breath.