Meditation of Silence
There are many different possibilities to meditate. Here are just some generic things, which I consider useful for meditating.
There is no intellectual way to describe meditation. On the contrary, meditation is about stepping out of the thinking mind and letting go of everything. Nobody can really explain it to us, we need to experience it by ourselves, we need to try, sense, feel, discover. There are many useful exercises helping us to do so. Some of them are introduced here. Laotse already said: "The biggest revelation is silence."
How do we get into the silence? It is the silence which is there once we are in between two thoughts. This gap is what we want to extend as much as possible during meditation.
For demonstration the following visualization: Imagine you are in the jungle. There are dangers everywhere and each time you hear the slightest sound your entire attention is focused on this sound to figure out whether it is threatening your life or not. This moment of absolute focus empties your mind. This is the moment you do not think at all. There is emptiness.
Now imagine, instead of focusing externally, go inside. Listen to your body, to your being. For example try to figure out what sensation is in your belly. While focusing on it you are empty as well. You stop thinking and instead you are open for whatever it is that shows up.
Further exercises in order to accomplish meditation of silence:
Exercise 1: Observe your breathing
This exercise is not about altering our breathing, but simply to observe
it. The conscious awareness of the breath avoids thinking. Do this exercise
for e.g. half an hour. If you get lost in thought it does not matter. Just
come back and start again. There is no right or wrong. It is just an exercise
without judgment.
Every time we notice that we got lost in thoughts, we let go of it
and just start observing again. During that exercise nothing matters. You
can start solving problems afterwards but during this half an hour absolutely
nothing matters. Try to remember that if you find yourself wandering off.
Exercise 2: Awareness of the body
Another possibility to silence the mind is to focus your awareness on different
parts of your body. Start with your awareness in your head. Then move the
awareness to the forehead, then the eyes, the cheeks, the mouth, the scalp,
the hair … Then be aware of your shoulders, then the arms. After that
move to your torso, your chest, back, butt, thighs, knees, calves and finally
the feet. Then focus your awareness on your entire body. Stay there for a
while.
Repeat the process of moving your awareness through the single parts
of your body until you finally feel the entire body. Once your awareness is
focused on the entire body, it is then that silence arises. This state of
silence is the goal of this exercise.
There are endlessly more techniques and exercises on meditation. For example watching a bonfire for hours and focusing the awareness on the fire. This leads to an altered state of consciousness, a sort of dreaming, maybe even daydreaming. It is similar with watching a waterfall for a long time. Find out what suits you best. Life leads us if we allow it to do so and fully trust it.
However, what is the purpose of an empty mind?
a) If we notice that we are enmeshed in thoughts and stories which
occupy us completely, then we have the possibility to consciously step out
of them and automatically calm our emotions by doing so.
b) The state of silence allows us to listen to our inner voice. We
reconnect with our divinity. The silence helps us to delve into a wisdom which
might not be directly accessible for the thinking mind, which goes beyond
the mind. Only if we are empty can the mind draw on it as well.
c) and a lot more …
Our sensitivity improves through meditation practice. It is then easier to sense ourselves as well as our surroundings and other people.
In modern times we are trained to have as much entertainment as possible, to be busy all the time, to have fun all the time and to be in an artificial state of ecstasy as often as possible. Hence, we are loosing the connection to our own being.
Through meditation we return, we rebalance, we reconnect with our origin.
We allow our soul to reconnect with us. We invite our soul to be one with
us if we empty ourselves and create the space for this to happen.
Silence is a place of great power and healing.