Learning from Silence
by Robert Rabbin
From the time I was 11 years old, I
needed to know one thing above and before all else: Who am I? I traveled for
a long time and throughout the world in search of answers.
One day, as if I had lived alone for many years in the deep desert, I was
taken by a stunning stillness, and without resistance I disappeared into
Silence. It was more than an epiphany, more than grace, more than mystical
union: It was my soul's homecoming, my heart's overflowing love, and my
mind's eternal peace.
In Silence, I felt my core identity, my essential nature, as a unity-in-love
with all creation. I experienced freedom clarity, and joy as my true Self. I
realized I was of time and eternity in equal measure. I was composed of
physical matter and spiritual energy in equal measure. I was born in New
York City at the same instant I appeared 20 billion years ago, unfathomably
and impossibly far away. as a sibling to trillions of suns.
This Self, this Silence, belongs to all of us--it is who we are; it is what
we are. If we are to experience and embody authentic peace and love, if we
are going to bring true healing to our wildly violent and endangered world,
we are going to have to learn to live within this essence which joins us
together as brothers and sisters.
Please remember the Silence beyond words, the Silence of mystery and magic,
the Silence of the soul, of the heart, the Silence in which lovers give
themselves to a greater loving, a selfless loving, the Silence which knows
only this moment, this present moment, this incredible instant of pure life
when time suddenly stops, when we breathe the high-altitude air we call
love. I want to remind you of these ways of Silence knowing and being, which
you know, which you are.
Silence is within our very genes. It wind around and binds together the
strands of our DNA. It is the essence of who we are. It is within our
breath. It is there like music between our thoughts. It is the light within
our eyes. It is the high arc of birds we long to follow home to their secret
nests. It is in the rhythm of waves, the innocence of children, the deep
feelings within the heart that have no cause, when the heart is pierced
without warning and our eyes fill with teas. It is within the kindness of
one person to another. It is within the stillness of nights, and peace of
early mornings. It is there when you see the one you love coming towards
you, and your pulse pounds and races with delight and you move with her in a
twilight not of this world, but of the spirit world, the world of our deeper
knowing.
In Silence, we open to life and life opens to us, life reaches towards us
and touches us in the center of our heart. Our heart breaks open and another
heart is revealed. This is the true heart, the one that knows how to meet
life with open arms. Silence knows that thoughts about life are not life
itself. If we touch life through Silence, life touches us back, intimately,
sensually, erotically. We become one with life itself, abandoning all
thoughts about life. And then the mystery of life, the wonder of life, the
beauty of life, the sanctity of life, become our life. Everything but
wonderment falls away; the anger and fear and violence disappear as if they
never existed.
Knowing Silence is knowing ourselves for the first time; we see the world
for the first time. We only have to be still, to be still, until that
Silence comes forth from within us, to surround us, to illuminate us. This
Silence is the real teacher, the real teaching, the real path. This Silence
is what we seek above all else, for it is who we are. It is our own Self. It
is restores us to love and redeems us in love.
Knowing Silence is knowing your Self. Knowing your Self is freedom. In
Silence, you are the very embodiment of joy, the very expression of love.
All this is true right now, in this moment. Just enter your Self fully and
deeply. You will find this Silence, and in Silence you will know your own
beauty, your own power, your own magnificence--it is the same for all! As
the embodiment of Silence you are perfection itself. You are a treasure to
the world, a treasure to the world which the world needs
now, right now, right now, not later or tomorrow, but right now the world
needs you to be your true Self, the world needs the healing power of your
heart, and of your Silence.
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Robert Rabbin is a speaker, writer, and solution architect with a passion
for radically engaged spiritual wisdom. He offers Radical Sages programs
throughout the world. For more more information, please visit:
http://www.radicalsages.com .
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© 2005 Robert Rabbin/All Rights Reserved/
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