This world is flowing I've always known all language is liquid
Shakesphere meets Houdini on a damp and misty night Such as this
The great escape of human breath Without sound, shape, or illusion Within the memory of water
Words sift through this mental horizon There they sit, there they lie Just above the watery sky They seem to mock shocking in the deep, deep chill of this vaporous quill And there they sit still
Not a word in the sky
Do we expect the pen to know what it's writing, Just what it's exciting on the page?
The mind is a wordless sky The world of words meaningless Except to the greater eye Breathe and we blow them away
Why do we even ask why When not a word in the sky?
Words seem to mock shocking in the deep, deep chill of this vaporous quill There they sit still
Not a word in the sky
And if liquid could speak I believe it has age and language Each drop could tell us its name, its story Maybe how in a past life it died happy as it fell into the sea Resolved, dissolved, but not forgotten
Words seem to mock shocking in the deep, deep chill of this vaporous quill There they sit still
Not a word in the sky
Sometimes I see only bellharmonics in the consonant sky and the energy that binds me It knows, shows, and being flows and stretches Without a world and yet within
Not a word in the sky
I survive
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I am totally amazed at how many persons think that incessant talking is a dignified way for a human being to live among others. And if you are quiet, silent, not chattering along, they look at you and notify you they are concerned you are upset about something. Like, "Are you okay?" Such is the cultural expectation, apparently, that chattering without reason except to entertain oneself and, possibly, others chattering also, is normal and quietness implies some emotional upsetness. I wonder what would happen if that were reversed, that we began to wonder what was wrong with the person who adores hearing herself or himself talk so much, and often clearly without thinking very much. The world does not need more talk, it surely needs more Silence.
*Arem Nahariim-Samadhi
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A farmer discovered he had lost his watch in the barn. The watch had sentimental value for him.
After searching among the hay for a long time, he gave up. The farmer, then, enlisted the help of a group of children playing outside the barn. He promised them the child who found the watch would be rewarded.
The children hurried inside the barn, went through and around the stack of hay, but still could not find the watch. Just when the farmer was about to give up looking, a little boy went up to him and asked to be given another chance.The farmer looked at him and thought, “Why not? This kid looks sincere enough.”
So, the farmer sent the little boy back into the barn. After a while the child came out with the watch in hand! The farmer was happy and surprised. He asked the boy how he succeeded where the rest had failed. The lad replied, “I did nothing but sit on the ground and listen. In the silence I heard the ticking of the watch and just looked for it in that direction.”
* * *
When I speak of listening to from the Silence, that is not a grammatical error. I mean it - to from the Silence. One value of a commitment to live from the Silence rather than from the noise - the noise of even the incessant chattering some seem to think is a dignified, normal way of being - is we are able to "hear" what others do not hear, we are able to listen from the Heart, the Oneness, Heart-with-Heart.
I am convinced, through observation and personal experience, that no one who does not live from the Silence can consistently listen from the Heart. We, therefore, need to learn to listen from to; that is, the Silence is the Grace in which we are One, but to represents the extension of that into otherness. Oneness seeks to express into otherness, but Oneness is first Silence, then listening, then speech. Speech, in the grammar of Grace is last, not first, as many seem to think - and leaving out listening, for they have not been quiet enough to sensitize to the subtle presence of others and Life.
So many words meant to help others are limping efforts, for they arise from well-meaning persons who do not know how to first listen, and this is not merely hearing, but discerning below what one is saying, even connecting with the presence prior to what one is saying - presence prior to content. Many of us are conditioned to be content-oriented, not presence-centered - the latter being the Center, which is Silence, Emptiness-that-is-Fullness, which orients one's life and relationships and work.
Silence is not merely about one's own personal enlightenment or something like that. Silence is the Ground from which we grow in true Love toward all, the Grace from which we learn truly to listen. So, Silence is essential for enlightened compassion - this is more than merely natural affections of sadness for others.
How do we know how to love others truly, if we do not listen with them - for listening from to is communion, is being with? How can we live rightly, if we consistently esteem our saying something more important than not saying something? Too many simply speak what they think is good advice, but that is exactly the problem - they speak from what they think, not the Silence. And this includes most persons, not a minority, that we live among.
The underlying reason most persons fear Silence is an interesting matter to explore, but not at this time here - later, in another presentation, possibly.
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*Quietness, Tortle_Cat, Littlelakey, Flickr
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*Lotus of the Heart is a Work of Arem Nahariim-Samadhi ~ a Hospice Chaplain, interspiritual author, writer, poet, and bicyclist. He is someone in love with Life and inviting others to that same ecstasy of Love ~ and, by the way, herein is nothing he claims as his own.
