LEARN THE ABC OF SILENCE

“God tells us: ‘Focus on Me and I will whisper good things in your mind’. Ego is such that it makes the mind race; it will not allow you to be still. But, to make the mind peaceful and benevolent, God keeps telling us, ‘Focus your mind on Me’.”

— Dadi Janki

When we start learning a new language, we go back to basics. It is the same with the language of silence. The ABC of silence comprises three closely-linked steps that help to still a confused and restless mind so it can be so still and silent that it absorbs healing energy. Step A is reflection, which leads toward step B, concentration, and this moves us effortlessly into step C, connection.

STEP A: REFLECTION

Effective reflection does not mean fixing your mind on an idea and thinking it over and over again. This just wastes time and energy without nourishing either the mind or the soul. Instead, to settle into blissful reflection, first find your natural inner stillness. When it is hard to find stillness, we often try to focus the mind by repeating a mantra or a series of words over and over. But such forced techniques bring tension into the mind, rather than the freedom of stillness. True reflection and concentration cannot be compelled; they come naturally once you are quiet within.

STEP B: CONCENTRATION

Once you are still and reflective, try to drift into a gentle and healing state of remembering, reflecting on who you are and contemplating the peaceful soul that you are in essence. The concentration will come to you, knowing it is welcome. Once you find true concentration, notice how your thoughts become fewer and fewer until, in an eternal moment of reflection and stillness, you reach the point of essence. We might refer to this as peace, the eternal self, or God.

STEP C: CONNECTION

The mind can remain at this point of essence, calm and serene. Because it is so focused on the point of its reflection, there is no outward loss of energy, and so the self starts to feel full. Such a concentrated state creates an automatic connection with the self as a spiritual being and with God, the source of being. As the concentrated thought becomes more pinpointed, it ‘plugs in’ to this source of being, and a current of spiritual energy flows from the eternal source to the self. This connection is very loving and brings a special form of energy into human consciousness.

We all receive currents of energy all the time, from other human beings, from matter, and from our roles in life, but these can pollute our innate energy or block its release. The human mind and heart need this non-human current of the eternal source, for it creates a different circulation of energy; it creates in us, simultaneously, wonderful feelings of purification and liberation. When this connection is maintained daily, it builds a reservoir of permanent spiritual peace inside that we constantly and quietly share with others, like a flower silently offering its beauty and fragrance to all in its vicinity. Although it does not feel as if it is doing anything, such a concentrated mind becomes an instrument of the Divine.

The late Anthony Strano was an author and Rajyoga teacher with the Brahma Kumaris.