Listening

I've just finished "Listening Below the Noise - A meditation on the practice of silence" by Anne D. LeClaire. This isn't a book about how to meditate. It's an exploration of silence in daily life. The author began, on a whim, to spend one day a month in silence. She later made it the first and third Monday of each month. In her book she explores her many and varied experiences with this practice, both her own, and the responses of others to her practice. At the end of her book she offers up some small ways to find more silence in your life.

The only time I almost put the book down was when she mentioned Masaru Emoto, the guy who says that speaking nicely to water changes its structure. Sorry, but I think that's pseudoscience. It added a momentary cringe factor for me. There are enough amazing things in nature without making stuff up. But I kept reading and that turned out to be the only place where I felt uncomfortable with her writing.

From the book...

"I once read that the Inuit and Igloolik have more than two hundred words for snow, and I envy them a language that can encompass the many subtleties of a single idea. I've read, too, that in the Buddhist tradition of Southeast Asia there are twenty-one different words for silence. In my dictionary, few synonyms are listed. Muteness. Stillness. A thesaurus doesn't offer many more. Quiescence, Peace. Wordless-ness. Quietude. Quiet.

But just as there are countless varieties of lilies, there are different kinds of silence, as many as there are intentions and reasons behind it. It can be gentle and peaceful. Risky and brave. Angry and punishing. Thoughtful and wise. Intimate. Loving. Restorative. Reflective. Sacred or profane. It can be used to honor or to shame. To diminish or empower.

How many words would it require to reveal all its multitudinous nuances and intents?

Fifty?

Two hundred?

More?"