I've just read Zurtok's interesting piece in the Non Fiction Forum regarding silence
Can you cope with silence? I'd say that nowadays, it's almost impossible to find anywhere that's completely silent, but I have had my moments of great peace when one can ALMOST experience silence. I remember standing on a road somewhere in the mountains in Wales. There was nothing in any direction and apart from a soft, soughing wind, there was absolutely no sound of 20th century life. No hum of a distant motorway, no airplanes.....nothing. I've experienced something similar in the rain forests of Costa Rica.
I seldom have a radio or TV on when I'm here alone. The thought of walking along the road with an earpiece blaring music and news into my ear doesn't appeal. In many ways, we've forgotten how to listen any more - has anyone ever read that story of a chap from the country who goes to visit a friend in London and hears the chirrup of a grasshopper in the grass of a park above the hum of the London traffic.
Nowadays, when I walk the dogs, I try to listen to what I'm experiencing. How often, at the end of the day, otherwise, are we only aware of a cacaphony of sound which dulls our senses?
I could quite happily live somewhere very, very quiet. It wouldn't bother me, although I'm a naturally exuberant person. I could be silent if I chose and when I meditate I often have nothing playing in the background - no mood setting music. After all, nothing is complete silence. If you sit there, you can hear your heart beating and the blood in your body, your breathing, your swallowing, the creak and crack of your body.
So, are we afraid of the silence?
Can you cope with silence? I'd say that nowadays, it's almost impossible to find anywhere that's completely silent, but I have had my moments of great peace when one can ALMOST experience silence. I remember standing on a road somewhere in the mountains in Wales. There was nothing in any direction and apart from a soft, soughing wind, there was absolutely no sound of 20th century life. No hum of a distant motorway, no airplanes.....nothing. I've experienced something similar in the rain forests of Costa Rica.
I seldom have a radio or TV on when I'm here alone. The thought of walking along the road with an earpiece blaring music and news into my ear doesn't appeal. In many ways, we've forgotten how to listen any more - has anyone ever read that story of a chap from the country who goes to visit a friend in London and hears the chirrup of a grasshopper in the grass of a park above the hum of the London traffic.
Nowadays, when I walk the dogs, I try to listen to what I'm experiencing. How often, at the end of the day, otherwise, are we only aware of a cacaphony of sound which dulls our senses?
I could quite happily live somewhere very, very quiet. It wouldn't bother me, although I'm a naturally exuberant person. I could be silent if I chose and when I meditate I often have nothing playing in the background - no mood setting music. After all, nothing is complete silence. If you sit there, you can hear your heart beating and the blood in your body, your breathing, your swallowing, the creak and crack of your body.
So, are we afraid of the silence?
