Finding Inner Silence – Through Retreating into the Heart

4-minute read | Published on: August 18, 2024

The signs of the times indicate “loudness.” This is not only about external noise sources that disturb our peace and strain our nervous system but primarily about the so-called “inner noise”: a constant flood of thoughts and feelings, our craving for seemingly essential information and connectivity. This form of being driven is less fueled by external demands and circumstances and more by our often unconscious and profound fear. The more secure our lives become, the more palpable our fear of losing the familiar and facing an uncertain, unknown existence becomes.

 

See related to the topic of silence: What is Real? and The Essence of Advaita Vedanta. 

 

Japanese ink painting of a landscape

Places of Silence

In this time, as our Western society increasingly distances itself from introspection and the closeness to what we call God, a growing desire arises in people to seek out places of silence and find nourishment for the soul there.

As much as we long for solitude, peace, and tranquility, we often fear feeling alone, inwardly empty, needy, bored, or anxious. When the hustle and bustle of our busyness subsides, we come into contact with what we usually avoid.

For most people, the external manifestation of a place of silence is necessary to truly arrive at inner stillness. In a monastery, a church, or a place of meditation and retreat, it is possible to withdraw from worldly life, from excessive speaking and thinking, from images and distractions. By refraining from what we usually fill ourselves with, we can recognize what truly drives us in our daily lives; we begin to see the deeper motivations and impulses behind our way of living. One could also say: when it becomes quiet, the noise often really begins! As much as we long for solitude, peace, and tranquility, we often fear feeling alone, inwardly empty, needy, bored, or anxious. When the hustle and bustle of our busyness subsides, we come into contact with what we usually avoid. In a quietly opening heart, feelings that we have repressed emerge, and we may feel fear, anger, or neediness, possibly realizing that we are suffering. Thus, it would be too simplistic to believe that silence is the same as “having our peace.

The Difference Between Peace and Silence

The wisdom teacher OM C. Parkin speaks of two types of silence: the calm before the storm and the silence after the storm. This highlights the subtle yet essential distinction between these two inner states. When we find our peace and do not want to confront the inner storm, this peace is always associated with avoiding, ignoring, or placating our inner storm, which may arise when distractions fade. This peace provides a brief respite, but it is fragile and can dissipate in the next moment when something touches us that we dislike, hurts, or irritates.

The silence that truly nourishes us and strengthens our inner center is the silence AFTER the storm, perhaps even within the storm itself. The wisdom teachings of all spiritual paths describe the still mind that neither retreats, moves anywhere, nor opposes anything. Silence in this sense can be experienced in the state of meditation. The term “meditation” contains the Latin word medius, meaning the middle or the center. By beginning to observe how we fight against life, ourselves, and reality—wanting something better or running away—by being completely still for a moment and doing nothing but being present with our feelings, we experience a moment of silence. In fact, this form of meditation is not a technique we perform occasionally to become calm; rather, it reveals to us the silent place within our center that encompasses both our emotional and mental storms as well as moments of peace and love.

Silence is not an ideal state

Resting in oneself means deepening. And deepening is only possible through engagement. Thus, silence is not the result of turning away from ourselves, from childish feelings and needs, disruptive thoughts, doubts, and fears, but the fruit of increasingly deeper immersion and “submerging” through all that touches us. The quiet love of what IS allows us to be in harmony: it opens the heart, empties the head of too many thoughts, fills the belly, so that we find peace—even in everyday life. It is essential not to make silence a lofty ideal that we strive for and rarely touch. We can use every moment to dive deeper than the surface of appearances and to engage with what is.

“Every mind that has become still is at peace. And this silence is not a numbing silence, not a silence that excludes any discomfort. No, it is the silence that is behind everything and within everything. Remember this silence again! You have lived long enough with the noise of the world, both inside and outside. Silence is always there, and it is perfect inner peace.” (OM C. Parkin)

References in the text:

*from “Nine Portraits of the Soul” by Sandra Maitri, j.kamphausen

Further reading recommendations on the topic:

OM C. Parkin: Eye to Eye with Yourself

Gangaji: Freedom and Determination – The Fine Line of Surrender

Daniela Jodorf: Saraswati – The River of Life

Saritha M. Wimmer: Overflowing Simplicity: From the Drop to the Source

OM C. Parkin: Intelligence of Awakening – The Spiritual Rebirth of Humanity, Chapter 1 A Mind – Dialogue, p. 70, 3rd Edition, 2019, advaitaMedia.