Listen to the Silence

"Just Keep Quiet"

Papaji

Sometimes the most powerful spiritual teachings can be summed up in just a few words (or less). Take, for example, the words of the great spiritual teacher, Papaji. Though they had traveled thousands of miles in hopes of receiving some sort of great spiritual awakening from him, Papaji would tell westerner's who had come to see him to, "Just keep quiet." He realized that the minds of those who sought out his teaching were filled with endless opinions about the way things should be, and with fear and worry about what the future may hold. Because of this endless chatter, the freedom that they longed for continued to allude them. He understood that, as long as people's minds were filled with this endless thinking, they would not be able to 'hear' the great Silence that lies behind all thought.

In his simple directive, he was pointing the seeker back to this simple, yet profound Stillness that is available when we simply drop all of our attempts to figure ourselves, or our lives, out with the mind. If we are truly tired of our own opinions, and the exhausting search for a deeper peace through thinking, we can find ourselves open and able to actually see the profundity in these simple teachings, and to actually be transformed by them.

Try it for yourself right Now. Take a moment and close your eyes, and come home to your breathing, and as you enjoy the flow of your own breath, listen very intently to the sounds of life arising around you. Listen to the space out of which all sound arises.

Get a sense that behind every sound, including the sound of your own thoughts, there is a Silence that is inviting you to come home to the Present Moment, to relax and be at ease. It alone calls you to leave the confusion of you're wandering mind, and return home to It's spacious presence, here and now. This silence is the backdrop of all we say, think and do, and in It's openness we rediscover the sanity, peace and joy we long for.

Just keep quiet...

Nothing else is required.