The silence can take it.

Saturday, September 28, 2024

I find that the only remedy is sitting in silence. When I can’t see ahead, when I’m frustrated about the actions or non actions of another individual, and when it appears like nothing is changing, I sit in the silence. It refreshes me and calms me down.

The silence teaches me that what seems to stir me up is my reactive mind. It’s my own swirling mind about the actions of others and the choices they make that gets me broody. The mind thinks that actions are intentional, and most of the time they’re not. Other people usually don’t know what they’re doing. They are just being themselves. And we don’t like that, do we? We want them to be how we want them to be. But truthfully, we want them to be as they wish. That’s their best.

The silence shows us how to be nonreactive. It shows us how to remain completely at ease with what is. Most of the time, the moment requires no action on your part. Sitting in the silence helps you decide whether you need to take an action (because you want to) or if you need to do nothing (also because you want to). Sitting in the silence empowers you. Stewing in your thoughts weakens you. I sit in the silence quite often, particularly when my mind begins to torture me about the actions and words of others.

I have a lot of sitting in the silence to do because I’m still making problems out of a lot of people and my circumstances. But sitting in the silence will help me let go of them. That’s what I intend to do – release all of my problems into the silence. Don’t worry, the silence is infinite. It can take anything I decide to release into it.