More Silence

Our country doesn't need more action. It needs more stillness. We don't need more words. We need more silence.

If they are not rooted in silence, our words as well as our deeds are just chatter. Protest, preaching, prayer... dry leaves in the wind. Words of the candidate, the professor, the scientist, the guru... brittle twigs scratching at the glass.

Words of the righteous politician or the leftist politician, words about yoga, or non-duality, or love... these words are wearisome and predictable without a seed in the Unnameable.

Words shouted in the street or murmured in the temple, words like "freedom," "democracy," "god." What use are they if we won't deepen our silence to fathom the ineffable Being toward which these words are only pointers?

I am not talking about negative silence, which is only the absence of noise, but life-giving silence, the silence of the heart. I am talking about the bottomless wellspring of breathing, the nectar of a mind free from thought.

Yes, there is a silence beyond understanding, the womb of creation, the fountain of eternity in the hollow of this moment.

If you are very fortunate, you'll meet a teacher whose whisper leads you back to the Wordless. Which is the real purpose of language - to carry our awareness to the Unbounded, beyond all concepts.

And this is the real purpose of a mantra, the name that dissolves in the Nameless. The Sanskrit root of mantra is "mannas," meaning "mind," and "tra," meaning vehicle, as in the suffix "-tron." Electron is a vehicle for electricity. Photon is a vehicle for light. Mantra is a vehicle for mind, transporting the mind inward to its source in divine silence.

For the universe is not born of a Word, but of silence. Word is only the vehicle, the vibration of silence. And mantra is this process of creation in reverse. A true mantra carries our surrendered heart gracefully, effortlessly, back to the stillness of the cosmic womb, where every particle of our body and every breath of our spirit is refreshed, renewed, reborn. This is the actual purpose of meditation.

My first teacher, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, was a master of this ancient science. He once whispered...

"Silence vibrating is Creation.

Silence flowing is Love.

Silence shared is Friendship.

Silence seen is Infinity.

Silence expressed is Beauty.

Silence maintained is Strength.

Silence omitted is Suffering.

Silence allowed is Rest.

Silence recorded is Scripture.

Silence preserved is Our Tradition.

Silence given is Initiation.

Silence received is Joy...

Silence alone Is."