seven silences

silence of earthly silence
silence of chaos
silence of thought
silence of non-thought
silence of unearthly silence
silence of source
silence of no-thing

first there is quiet on earth... when no one speaks, when no cars speed past on busy streets, when the ocean is still at slack tide, when the air is breezeless...
then in the midst of this apparent silence maybe the subtler sounds can be heard... the sound of the heart pumping blood, the in and out of breathing – noticing and learning deeper about ourselves...

then there is busy city sounds, the crying child, the television commercial, the loud car stereo, of spiritual searching, the cheers at a game, a bomb exploding, a strong emotion, athletes competing, buying and selling, billions of different stories all played out simutaneously...
then, in the midst of all that activity there can be the opportunity to recognize the stillness of focused attention, and of the common-ness of embodied experience...

then there are the times when there is much thinking, about past and future things... about a problem or a possible scenario, or the dialogue when learning something in a school, or in a book, gabbing and gossip, and joking and planning to tell a joke...
then, in the midst there is the opportunity to be present with all the thoughts – seeing how they consume time and energy and how they shape our reality...

then there are times when there is no thinking, a moment of being startled, or confused, or short-circuited, or so exhausted that the usual dialogue is interupted,...
then in the midst there is an opportunity to see that you are not your thoughts or anyone else's thoughts.

then there is the silence beyond the gravitational pull of the world, beyond the four elements of earth and our earthen bodies... the space between the planets and galaxies, the space between electrons...
then in the midst there is the opportunity to experience space that infuses form

then there is the silence of source as the potential for all that arises through what is arisen in the moment, gone as soon as it has arisen... gone... gone....gone.... arising and arising and arising – the wellspring that is always there...
then in the midst of that there is the opportunity to know yourself and all you have as transient and inseparable from the source

then there is silence of no-thing – the cradle of all concepts, of form and emptiness of stillness and arising – of which no-thing, no-thing at all can be expressed.