On Silences

What is the meaning of silence?

Maybe silence is the absence of meaning?

Or rather, a sanctuary for the meaningless. Not in a derogatory sense, but in the sense of 'rest from meaning'.

There is so much meaning, so many signs that signify all around us. I like to think of silence as a space without signs.
 
Maybe silence is the absence of meaning?

Or rather, a sanctuary for the meaningless. Not in a derogatory sense, but in the sense of 'rest from meaning'.

There is so much meaning, so many signs that signify all around us. I like to think of silence as a space without signs.

Well, I quite like that thought; it is an intriguing approach - but just to be sure, you do not mean nothingness either?
 
Well, I quite like that thought; it is an intriguing approach - but just to be sure, you do not mean nothingness either?

No, not nothingness. I do not think it is possible to experience actual nothingness.

You could imagine silence as the pure experience of being present, without interpreting what is around you as a world of objects that you ascribe meaning to and that you interact with. It would be more akin to a feeling of oneness with the world.
 
No, not nothingness. I do not think it is possible to experience actual nothingness.

You could imagine silence as the pure experience of being present, without interpreting what is around you as a world of objects that you ascribe meaning to and that you interact with. It would be more akin to a feeling of oneness with the world.

OK, thank you very much for sharing your thoughts!

By the way, I love the image you use as your avatar :smile:
 
OK, thank you very much for sharing your thoughts!

No problem! Of course none of this is exactly empirical—I’m just playing around with my intuition mostly. Silence is a fascinating topic but a slippery one as well.

I like the paradox involved in the fact that when we try to think about the meaning of silence, we place silence in the linguistic field and thereby ‘un-silence’ it in some way.
 
Is anyone else interested in Ramana Maharshi's teachings?

This is a quote from him:
"The highest form of grace is silence. It is also the highest spiritual instruction."

I'm not familiar with his work unfortunately; in that area I've read only Pema Chodron.
Thank you for sharing it :-)
 
As a young adolescent, my Dad asked for the shovel. He was on his knees and was going to use the pipe handle to stretch against a chain as a pry bar. He swung around to get it, but I had already placed it close to him. The pipe handle hit him in the head and made a sound like "bong". He stared at me in silence, having said a thousand words with the look on his face. I went and sat in the truck until he came to get me. My silence said all I needed to say. We went and had lunch, talking like friends as if nothing had happened.

"He opened not His mouth" has deep meanings to me. Sometimes words need not be spoken. It is in this type silence my mind thinks tremendous thoughts, like being chased down a snow-covered hill, in between the blue spruce, by a bear.

Silence in the mind is totally something else. Silence when one has tinnitus can be quite a challenge. It is like standing near a waterfall in the forest, listening for a bluebird. When we find him, the waterfall's sound slowly decreases as the bluebird's song rises like the wind. In the silence of my mind is where my God I find. Yet, I hear Him in the waterfall, in the bluebird, in the falling snow crystals, in the sound of a hoot owl in the swamp late in the evening. We can actually hear something that helps us to find the silence we seek, as the sounds we hear are those we have learned to love.

To some, silence is the absence of noise. When we give thought to spiritual things, are we not still and silent...in a sense? We need not hide in a closet to find silence.

Silence to you all.
 
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Isn't silence the absence of disturbing volume?

*Volume of bird chirps
*Of lucid thoughts
*Of waves
*Of everything else

Fascinating how what is silence to us could be noise to dolphins.
 
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