The Virtue is Silence and the Saboteur is Noise.
Silence is the absence of noise, not the absence of sound.
Noise and silence are both different types of sound. Just because your ears do not hear sound doesn’t mean it isn’t present. Sound is always present, and it is everywhere. We don’t have the capacity to hear every thought someone thinks or every breath that is drawn in, but sound is inherent in every motion that exists in the Universe. The journey of the Earth through space produces sounds that we may not hear and therefore we experience these sounds as silence, however, sound is everywhere, noise is not. The biggest difference between sound and noise is that sound pervades and noise invades.
We wear earphones to reduce noise, so that we may be able to enjoy the sounds of our choice. We tune out what some people are saying because it is just noise to our ears, and likewise, we may also strain to hear the meaning behind someone else’s words. Some words are like music to our ears, some words are noisy and rude, and still other words make us laugh or cry. Words are sounds that create change, they can make us speechless and silent or they can make us want to speak up.
Silence is filled with sound. Recently, the dam of silence broke and women around the world began to speak about what used to be unspeakable events. These events were loud in their lives, but women were silent about them. Silence can be like a lid covering noise. Break that lid and the noise spills out into the hearts and minds of millions of people. We can now hear what was always there. Their words created change.
Silence can save us, it can ruin us, it can torture us and it can liberate us. Silence is something we strive for and something we avoid, silence is golden and silence can be a very scary place. Silence can heal us or conceal us, and it can be the beginning of revealing the noisy truth that we have hidden in the recesses of our hearts.
Silence is a great healer. When we surrender to sleep we enter into the deep silence of regeneration. When we awaken from the silence of sleep we can be stronger and experience the power of healing. If we are sick, we require rest and quiet, when we are hurt from words and events, we just want to be left alone with our own thoughts, we don’t want anymore input. Silence can heal our minds and hearts because silence is the great healer.
Silence is the great concealer. We hide behind the vision of how we think we should be, we hide our true self because we are afraid of the noisy comments that will be made by others. Silence is like the night, it is a place of dreams and nightmares, it is a place where we are safely hidden or where we hide the truth from ourselves and others.
Practicing the loving and healing power of silence teaches us the art of listening. This can be our greatest gift to one another.
Peace be with you
Namaste