Short Story: A Sufi master speaks about the value of silence
@innertalks (21026)
Australia
September 7, 2022 7:27pm CST
The Sufi master, Lahadin Sahkinbin, was giving a lecture on the real silence of real silence, and what could that ever mean.
Here is what he said:
“It is said by our greatest Sufi masters that God is a silent God, and that he can best be reached from silence too.”
“Now, silence is not the silence of the absence of noise, but real silence is the presence of love, not making any other noises, but the sound of love loving, which is music to all ears, and deafens nobody, as it more nourishes them more into life.”
“Such silence is profound, as all input is coming from love, and no outer noise is being added from yourself, and so, in this silence of love, you and God are at last one again.”
“We masters do lecture to explain stuff to your minds, but we also sometimes will say nothing, and you can still feel us speaking to you in your heart.”
“Sufis call this practice,'Tawajoh.'”
“It is a way for the student to receive knowledge, truth, love, and power, from their teacher in silence.”
“The great poet, Rumi, has said that great Love is silent.”
“It is silent because we are at one with God, the root of that great love.”
“In that same silence, and connection to God’s oneness, we can come to both understand God, and to experience our love connection to him too.”
“Such silence is often said also to be the ultimate state of consciousness. It is the God consciousness, that God lives from.”
“Silence only speaks to us from within itself, and so noise never hears it speak. Any added noise always drowns out this voice of silence.”
Photo Credit: The photo used in this article was sourced from the free media site, pixabay.com
Mastering the art of silence, allows silence to speak through us. Consider more your words, before you speak them from your noise alone.
5 people like this
6 responses
@Nakitakona (56302)
• Philippines
14 Sep 22
I remember the popular song of Simon and Garfunkel's Sound of Silence.
3 people like this
@innertalks (21026)
• Australia
15 Sep 22
Yes, that was a great song, with some great lines in it too.
@Nakitakona (56302)
• Philippines
19 Sep 22
@macayada Yes that's a good song which we used to sing during our high school days
2 people like this
@macayada (1497)
• Cavite City, Philippines
16 Sep 22
@Nakitakona I know that song and I love it too.
3 people like this
@innertalks (21026)
• Australia
8 Sep 22
It is a line ball I think, as to which art must come first, as you can't have one without the other.
If we go right back, first there was silence, and then the listener came along, so silence comes first, as without that real silence, real listening never happens, as we are full of our own noise instead.
And yet, we must learn to listen to silence too, to properly hear it, but within the idea of oneness, real silence, and real listening, are pretty much the same thing.
@josie_ (9763)
• Philippines
8 Sep 22
@innertalks Your mention of silence coming first reminds me of the words in Genesis 1 about the Earth being "formless and empty"(and I presume silent) while the Spirit of God was hovering". But "God" created light and separated it from the darkness. Does silence dwell in darkness or light after the creator split "oneness" into "duality"?
3 people like this
@innertalks (21026)
• Australia
8 Sep 22
@josie_ "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."
John 1:1
If God, is the word, perhaps his word came before his silence???
Silence, can dwell anywhere, I would say; it can be at home both, in duality, and oneness, darkness, or light.
I like to have a bit each way, as I wouldn't like duality to be missing out in any way.
@arthurchappell (45002)
• Preston, England
7 Oct 22
Sufi mystics are always fascinating - read some Kahlil Gibran in my late teens / early 20's
2 people like this
@Shiva49 (26202)
• Singapore
8 Sep 22
It is said not to open our mouths unless we have something to say and not for adding to the din and crosstalk.
There is one exception though - we can when we have to eat or drink but that too moderately!
A few remove themselves from society and go into seclusion only to emerge much wiser and sought after by the hoi polloi Yes, we are lost in the din and bluster in our daily lives to lose sight of our creator.
Silence is golden and one would be listened to even if the words are sparse and soft when what we say has depth and meaning.
Some do practice periods of silence like Gandhi and Ramana Maharshi did from time to time.
It is said, in silence we can hear the sound of the universe and creation in perpetual motion
2 people like this
@innertalks (21026)
• Australia
8 Sep 22
Gandhi, and another spiritual master, Meher Baba, only had a quasi-silence though.
In their non-talking stints, they used a writing board to communicate with.
A bit like having a bit each way, and slightly hypocritical, in my view.
Silence should communicate itself solely from itself, not from other signs, and writing boards, which is no different than using the mouth to speak with.
"Let silence take you to the core of life."
Rumi
The core of life is silence, and all else springs forth from this core.
We can rotten the core in ourselves, with too much loud noise, and pompous displays of puffed-up speech.
@Shiva49 (26202)
• Singapore
9 Sep 22
@innertalks Yes, bluff and bluster can take us only thus far but soon we stand exposed.
Less talk will lead to better productivity.
Precis writing comes to mind " Precis writing is a summary or a gist of a comprehensive passage that is supposed to cover all the details and important aspects of the passage and convey the summary with the use of minimal words."
Deep reflection/meditation is possible only when silence is observed.
2 people like this
@innertalks (21026)
• Australia
10 Sep 22
@Shiva49 l like truth to be simply stated, and not fluffed up in any way.
Summarised truth is useful, sometimes, but the truth should not be tinkered with, by those who think that they can break it down into a few rules of their own too.
To express truth should take no more, or no less, words of truth to state it, without any additions, or subtractions, to it, either
@magallon (19280)
• Philippines
8 Sep 22
" People talking without speaking
People hearing without listening
People writing songs that voices never heard.
And no one dared disturb the sound of silence"
In silence, we can feel everything.
In silence, we are able to say anything we wanna say.
In silence, we are one with God.
3 people like this
@innertalks (21026)
• Australia
8 Sep 22
Yes, that song is a very meaningful song, with its words.
That's nicely put, in silence we can meet God, and in silence, we can stay close to God too.
"Hope will never be silent."
Harvey Milk, (1930 to 1978) an American Politician said that.
Is this true, though?
I would say that hope connects us from the silence of God into the silence of our self.
It is both silent and noisy in doing this, as it awakens the silent words of truth in our heart then too, making them loud enough for us to hear with our minds, giving hope to our mind that God really exists in our heart.
@macayada (1497)
• Cavite City, Philippines
16 Sep 22
I remember my mother, and I miss her each day. She was like an alarm clock in nagging us, from waking us up in the morning and every hour in checking our daily routine. There was no earphone before and so you could hear her voice banging your eardrum. When she left us, the silence is deafening and in silence we felt deeply the meaning of a mother, the importance of her in our lives. We did not hear our mother when she was with us but in her silence now she reached us deeper in our heart. She still talks to us, but is now whispering in the same caring loud voice
2 people like this
@innertalks (21026)
• Australia
16 Sep 22
Yes, a caring voice can be caring in many ways, and we shouldn't too quickly criticise some of those ways, as one day we will more greatly realise the caringness of that way too.
My Mum's caring voice was chirpy, and she always was bright and cheerful, smiling so hard across the phone at me, that I always felt it. I miss her too.
