Inner Work

For the week of April 7, 2008

Listening to Sounds, Hearing the Silence

Sounds emerge from silence. By listening to sounds we can hear the silence that surrounds them — and us. Opening to that silence, we open to our being. In opening to our being, we set the stage for opening to the Spirit beyond being.

Listen to the little sounds, the undertones of life that usually go unnoticed. The creaking of the floor, the tap of the keyboard, the chopping of vegetables, the hum of the refrigerator, the murmur of air ducts, the rustle of leaves, the chirping of birds, the rumble of traffic, the clanking of silverware. By attuning your hearing to perceive such sounds, you simultaneously attune to the silence around them. Sounds hover over silence, making silence itself more noticeable by contrast.

The silence we do not hear with our ears evokes the silence we do not think with our thoughts. In both cases we perceive something more subtle than mere absence of sound: the responsive, empty canvas of consciousness.

Music can open our awareness to the silence between the notes. Great music can open us to the silence beneath the notes. Sounds do not really interfere with or disturb the silence. Although sounds may mask the silence, we can nevertheless pay attention to the silence beneath sound. Sounds can guide our attention toward the underlying silence. And we step into the vast world of silence, a world of a piece with our consciousness itself.

For this week, pay attention to the little sounds, particularly sounds with low semantic content. Conversations, TV, and talk radio draw our attention to the meaning of the words. Less semantically-laden sounds offer us more freedom to hear sound as sound, to hear the ever-present symphony, and to connect with the silence beneath all sound.

About Inner Frontier                                    Send us email 

Copyright © 2001-2024 Joseph Naft. All rights reserved.