The Inner Silence

“Silence is the language of God, all else is poor translation.”

There is an outer silence — the absence of sound — and there is an inner silence, which is something different and much harder to find.

The outer silence can be created by going somewhere quiet. The inner silence cannot be created by going anywhere. It is not the absence of thought. It is the quality of relationship to thought — the ability to watch thoughts arise and pass without being swept away by them.

This inner silence is what meditation points toward. Not the suppression of thought, but the discovery of the space in which thought occurs. The awareness that is present before thought, during thought, and after thought.

In that space, there is something that does not change. Something that is not disturbed by the noise of the mind. That something is worth finding.

Related Reflections

Themes that often travel alongside silence.