My Seven Days in Silence – Day Four
The Chopra Center offers an annual retreat at Asilomar Conference Center in Pacific Grove, CA. It’s called Silent Awakenings. It’s literally adjacent to Pebble Beach, for some context. We spend seven days in silence. No phone, no TV, no online YouTube cat videos, no social media, and no talking! It’s a complete digital detox. I’ll be sharing my learnings and insights from each day. Day 1, Day 2, Day 3. Here’s day four which is all about Silence.
It’s interesting the deeper I go into silence, the fewer notes I write. Last night’s session with Deepak focused on spirituality and medicine. It was interesting to hear his personal journey through medical school until today. He outlined an approach based on the 8 limbs of yoga which approaches spirituality and health from a ‘top’ down point of view. It starts with transcendence; connection with the idea that we are and can experience infinite possibilities. Next, one progresses through and adopts spiritual practices. Followed by disengagement from all false constructs; the conditioned mind. Lastly, one experiences true freedom. The underlying concept is embracing the discipline to be free. Do you have the discipline to be free? Have a think on that…
The daily theme to awaken to is Silence:
Firstly, I found it ironic that we are awakening to silence today. And secondly, I completely appreciate they had to ease us into this practice. If we started with Silence on day one, while our minds, bodies and for that matter, spirits were still coming off of travel, crazy schedules, and cat videos, well, it may have been too big of a contrast. So, thank you Chopra teachers! Today, we discussed Mauna. Mauna is a Sanskrit word that most succinctly means “silence.” There are many nuances inherent in its meaning and it can be practiced with varying degrees of intensity. Practicing Mauna is recommended both in classic yogic traditions and in many contemporary contemplative practices. It is about training our minds, not just our mouths, to be silent. It is deeply transformative because it helps us quiet our thoughts and, more importantly, acknowledge the background of Stillness that is our Real Nature. We are to focus on the silence vs. fixating on the noise. By conserving the energy of un-necessary speech, we can experience a deeper connection to (insert your belief or non-belief system of choice here) via the silent witness that is in each of us.
Random notes:
Today was poetic. I’ve got the first draft of a poem that I’m evolving, but I’ll share some excerpts. It will be titled “Silent Grace”. …These hallowed walls have held so many; the seekers, the found, the saved; the downtrodden, the broken-hearted, the sick, the dying and those that walk in faith… We don’t often recognize or thank the space that holds us. It’s just accepted as ‘there’. Yet when in need we find you, so sad that it’s often in despair. If your walls could share what would they say? Probably nothing at all for silence is the answer. Yet, she whispers, “I’ll always hold you in my beautiful, silent grace”.
In summary, I challenge you to find some silence today and simply notice the spaces that hold you. It could be the love from your partner. Or perhaps, it’s the co-worker that is fully present and listening to you. What about your home, apartment, room or car? Once you notice, say ‘thanks’, because without being held together, what would we be?
We only have a finite amount of time on this planet, and you can choose how to spend that time.
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