Seek the Silence
by Kym H. R. Kennedy
Pretty much every metaphysical teacher today recommends a regular practice of meditation and though thousands of people read their books and listen to their tapes and even follow them around the country to hear them speak….I would LOVE to know how many (or I suspect few) of them actually follow their most basic, most simple advice….MEDITATE DAILY!
People say it is too hard to meditate. I bet if I told you that the secret to happiness and peace of mind required climbing stairs or mountains or burying a piece of hair from the left side of your head on the first night of the full moon in May, many would try it… but be still? Noooo that is too HARD!!!
What exactly is the most basic method to use for meditation? For me it is simple, sit in a chair with your eyes closed for a minimum of five minutes per day. Now anything above and beyond that is getting fancy. I mean sure you could count your breaths for 45 minutes, or you could look for light in your third-eye chakra, or you could silently chant a mantra or whatever other things you have heard, but truly for starters…you just need merely to sit down and shut up for five minutes…with your eyes closed.
So if it is so simple then what is the point you ask? Well the main point is that God speaks to us in the silence. Okay that may sound hokey to some of us, but it is true. We all have a still silent voice that tries like heck to talk to us daily. We all converse with it but most of us don't trust it. How many times have you said…I really don't feel like going there, doing that, seeing them, buying that etc. etc, but you do it anyway and something happens to confirm that you should have listened to yourself? Well you are not alone. Many of us choose not to listen to ourselves, to our still small voices, and we end up regretting that we didn't.
There is a not a lot of support in the world however for actually listening to that still small voice. We are all so "addicted to the cacophony" according to Marianne Williamson. We turn on the television just to "keep ourselves company". What the heck does that mean? What is so wrong with being alone that we have to pipe in artificial guests through the airwaves? What is it about the silence that frightens us or bores us so? Why can't we sit alone and just be?
All of the greatest inventions of our lifetime came from thoughts. Everything that exists in our world in fact was first a thought in the mind of a man or woman. The chair you are sitting in, the cake you eat, the shirt or blouse you are wearing and the television you are drowning in. Why not see what original thoughts come to us instead of simply enjoying the benefits of thoughts that came to someone else. What if you were to think up the next most significant method of transportation? What if you created the most fabulous piece of music or designed the most beautiful lawn sculpture of all time. What if you simplified the process of enrolling kids in school, or developed an easier way to buy groceries. It could be something as simple as thinking of a better way to organize your own closet. It doesn't have to be a stupendous change to make it a valuable thought.
Sitting in the silence helps us to learn to listen to our inner voice, which shows up in our thoughts. It strengthens that muscle and increases the volume so that we can hear it more clearly and regularly. Ideas both great and small will flow to us in ways we least expect if we but tune into that celestial station inside our own minds. Why not work that creative muscle to see what thoughts come to you? Why not give the God in you a chance to speak?
Without that personal inner guidance we are left to the advice, direction and leadership of the people around us. The next-door neighbor tells us what to do, or Oprah tells us how to live. People magazine tells us how to survive. I don't know about you, but none of those sources knows what really floats my boat. You know…do they really get that I am a Leo and therefore prone to expecting to live royally when they tell me that I should shop at K-Mart? Do they know that food and I have had a love-hate relationship since childhood when they tell me I can drop 10 pounds effortlessly and still eat all that I want if I just _______, you fill in the blank.
No…they don't REALLY know me. Not even my mother really knew me obviously or she wouldn't have kept telling me that I would never get a man if I cut my hair which sent me straight to the barber shop without stopping at GO each time she said it. I want to take the advice of someone who KNOWS me and there is no one in the world that knows me like I know me. That is what sitting in silence is good for…it helps get you to listen to that inner voice that will NEVER steer you wrong.
Now don't think that every time you sit down and shut up that you will literally hear voices or that a scroll will appear listing the things that you need to do in order of importance. That's not gonna happen…however if you do sit and be still, eventually you will notice yourself feeling more calm as things happen in your days. You will instinctively know which direction to take without questioning as you may have before. Answers will all come to you quite easily; solutions come before things become problems. It is like you have taken five minutes to ask God's opinion and it comes to you when you need it most.
Try it…just sit, in the silence, once per day, for five minutes (minimum, I guarantee you will extend that time on your own over time), with your eyes closed, and see if your approach to life and it's approach to you indeed changes to a more peaceful, life full of answers and not as many unanswered questions. Sit in the silence with God and know that all is well.