Exercise1:The riches of Silence ( from the book " sadhana - a way to God" by Anthony de mello)
To grasp the revelation that is found in scripture you must expose yourself to scripture.to grasp the revelation that silence offers, you must expose yourself to silence and this is not easy .let us attempt to do this in our very first exercise.
close your eyes.....
at the end of ten minutes, I will ask you to open your eyes and share with us , if you wish, what you did and what you experienced during the exercise.
............
............
............
In sharing with the rest of us what happened to you or what you did , you must tell us what attempts you made to attain silence and how successful your attempts were.Describe this silence if you can. Tell us what you experienced in the silence. Tell us anything you thought and felt during the exercise.
the experience of people who attempt this exercise is infinitely varied .most discover to their surprise, that silence is something they are simply not accustomed to ; that no matter what they do they cannot still the constant wandering of the mind or quieten the emotional turmoil in the heart. others feel themselves approaching the frontiers of silence; then they panic and withdraw. silence can be frightening.
No reason to be discouraged. even those wandering thoughts of yours are a great revelation, are they not?
the fact that your mind wanders , isn't that a revelation about yourself? it is not enough to know this,you must take time to experience this wandering mind of yours. and the type of wandering it indulges in- how revealing that is too!
and here is something else to encourage you .. the fact that you were aware of your mental wanderings or of your inner turmoil or of your inability to be still shows that you do have some small degree of silence within you- at least a sufficient amount of silence to be aware of all of this.
close your eyes again now and become aware of the wanderings of your mind... for just two minutes
Then sense the silence that makes it possible for you to be aware of those wanderings....
for awareness can only exist where there is silence.
it is this minimal silence inside of you that we should build upon in the exercises that follow. as the silence grows it will reveal more and more to you about yourself. or, more accurately , silence will reveal yourself to you. that is its first revelation.. yourself. and in and through this revelation you will be given things that money cannot buy, things like wisdom, serenity, joy, god.
if you desire to have these things it will not do to merely reflect on them or talk about them. what you will need is work. well, get to work right now.
close your eyes
seek silence for another five minutes
at the end of the exercise ask yourself if your attempts this time were more successful or less.
did silence reveal something to you this time that you failed to see before?
don't look for anything sensational in the revelation that silence brings- lights, inspirations, insights.
in fact, don't look for anything at all. limit yourself to observing whatever comes to your awareness no matter how trite and commonplace.
Excerpt from his book-" sadhana a way to God " by Anthony de Mello,S.J
PAGES 172 Paperback: Rs 65 $ 8.00
write to
GUJARAT SAHITYA PRAKASH
P.BOX 70,ANAND 388001,
GUJARAT,INDIA
Translations: Bengali, Catalan, Chinese,dutch, Finnish,french, German, Hungarian, Japanese, Indonesian, Italian, Korean, Malayalam, Marathi,polish, Portuguese, Sinhalese, Slovenian, Spanish, Tagalog, Tamil, Thai, Vietnamese,Visayan etc
" silence is the great revelation," said Lao tse.To our way of thinking revelation is found in scripture.And so it is.Today I should like you to discover that revelation is also found in silence.
To grasp the revelation that is found in scripture you must expose yourself to scripture.to grasp the revelation that silence offers, you must expose yourself to silence and this is not easy .let us attempt to do this in our very first exercise.
I want each of you to take a comfortable posture ....
I am now going to invite you to keep silence for a period of ten minutes. first you will try to attain silence, as total as silence as possible of heart and mind . having attained it, you will expose yourself to whatever revelation it brings.
at the end of ten minutes, I will ask you to open your eyes and share with us , if you wish, what you did and what you experienced during the exercise.
............
............
............
In sharing with the rest of us what happened to you or what you did , you must tell us what attempts you made to attain silence and how successful your attempts were.Describe this silence if you can. Tell us what you experienced in the silence. Tell us anything you thought and felt during the exercise.
the experience of people who attempt this exercise is infinitely varied .most discover to their surprise, that silence is something they are simply not accustomed to ; that no matter what they do they cannot still the constant wandering of the mind or quieten the emotional turmoil in the heart. others feel themselves approaching the frontiers of silence; then they panic and withdraw. silence can be frightening.
No reason to be discouraged. even those wandering thoughts of yours are a great revelation, are they not?
the fact that your mind wanders , isn't that a revelation about yourself? it is not enough to know this,you must take time to experience this wandering mind of yours. and the type of wandering it indulges in- how revealing that is too!
and here is something else to encourage you .. the fact that you were aware of your mental wanderings or of your inner turmoil or of your inability to be still shows that you do have some small degree of silence within you- at least a sufficient amount of silence to be aware of all of this.
close your eyes again now and become aware of the wanderings of your mind... for just two minutes
Then sense the silence that makes it possible for you to be aware of those wanderings....
for awareness can only exist where there is silence.
it is this minimal silence inside of you that we should build upon in the exercises that follow. as the silence grows it will reveal more and more to you about yourself. or, more accurately , silence will reveal yourself to you. that is its first revelation.. yourself. and in and through this revelation you will be given things that money cannot buy, things like wisdom, serenity, joy, god.
if you desire to have these things it will not do to merely reflect on them or talk about them. what you will need is work. well, get to work right now.
close your eyes
seek silence for another five minutes
at the end of the exercise ask yourself if your attempts this time were more successful or less.
did silence reveal something to you this time that you failed to see before?
don't look for anything sensational in the revelation that silence brings- lights, inspirations, insights.
in fact, don't look for anything at all. limit yourself to observing whatever comes to your awareness no matter how trite and commonplace.
what you observe may be nothing more than the fact that your hands are clammy or that you have an urge to change your posture or that you are worried about your health. No matter.The important matter is that you become aware of this. the content of your awareness is less important than its quality.as the quality improves , the silence will deepen. and as your silence deepens you will experience change. and you will discover to your delight that revelation is not knowledge. revelation is power; a mysterious power that produces transformation
Excerpt from his book-" sadhana a way to God " by Anthony de Mello,S.J
PAGES 172 Paperback: Rs 65 $ 8.00
write to
GUJARAT SAHITYA PRAKASH
P.BOX 70,ANAND 388001,
GUJARAT,INDIA
Translations: Bengali, Catalan, Chinese,dutch, Finnish,french, German, Hungarian, Japanese, Indonesian, Italian, Korean, Malayalam, Marathi,polish, Portuguese, Sinhalese, Slovenian, Spanish, Tagalog, Tamil, Thai, Vietnamese,Visayan etc
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