Silence?

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People often ask about silence and how silent our retreats are and why. And whether there’s any talking at all, if they get some guidance from us, the teachers.

Well, the answer to that is yes, we give some very specific guidance and instruction; and yes, these are silent retreats. Meditations are silent, meals are silent, and people are encouraged not to engage in social talk.

The purpose is not to close you down, or to cut you off from others. It’s something else, leading you towards a greater silence than can really only be found inside.

The world is filled with sound, and until your heart stops beating, and your blood stops pulsing through your ears, there will never be any true silence. It’s relatively quiet here, at Manzanita Village, where I live; but we’ve spent the last several weeks, listening to the outrageously cacophony of scores of nesting, orioles and finches, meadowlarks and more birds that I can name, in the trees and in the eaves of the buildings. Silent is one thing it’s not.

Then there is another sort of silence, that we have all experienced, which has less to do with sound than with our own internal  disposition. There are times, for example, when the noise of the city can be a source of agitation and stress; and other times when the sound of traffic and human activity is soothing, exciting, or even comforting. That sort of silence comes from inside. It has to do with inner balance that is not dependent on where you are, or what’s going on around you. To embody it, it helps if you spend some time in a quiet place, away from the noise of your everyday life. But the silence, ultimately, comes from within you.

I am fortunate to live in these Southern California mountains, and to also spend a significant part of my time in Los Angeles. It means that I can appreciate both environments that much more.

Manzanita Village was established as a meditation retreat center ? though I’ve sometimes felt that meditation was extra, and that it might be enough for people to simply come here and enjoy the mountains, hills, grassland and forest, and all the noise of life going on around.

Well I’m joking, a little. Meditation is a profound way towards inner silence. And the natural sounds of the world can make meditation, and your journey towards inner silence, that much easier. They remind you that meditation is a natural thing, simple. Birds sing, your sit quietly listening. Meditation does not have to be a big project. But it can be antidote to the habit of being continually busy, or being continually involved in one sort of project or another.

Like silence, meditation is not a project, it’s a disposition. Silence has more to do with how you listen than with soundproofing yourself. Meditation has more to do with deliberate sensitization, than with isolation or sedation. So a meditation retreat is just a simple a way to restore inner balance so that you are better able to do that. It is not a model for how you should live your life, but it is a way to install a quality of silence that you can carry with you into your every day life.

Let me ask you to consider the difference between the sort of silence where, when you hear a sudden sound, it makes you jump; and the sort of silence where nothing could startle you. What’s the difference? Let’s say that it has to do with the silence that you experience inside, that filters the sounds of the world in a particular way. You can call it peace, or personal congruence, or integration.

At retreats we now offer some very specific tools and skills to help you get out of your own way. The rest of the time is meditation, sitting in the zendo, walking, lying in a hammock, listening through all the sounds to the silence .. to what’s underneath … to the silence inside yourself. To listen to this article click here