Silence and reflection

Today I have a rare moment of free time after doing the dishes. I pull out my Yoga notebook and text to do some reading, while U2's Joshua Tree playing on my iPhone.  The sun is shining this morning, and we all know we are expecting rain to start again later today, so we will go out later to enjoy the nice sunny day between the storms.

I read these notes I took from my silence retreat last June, and they bring back warm memories of my second silence retreat with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar from the Art of Living Foundation. I'm inspired.

Let me first talk a little about the state of silence. Many things were said about silence, e.g. from the East: "Silence is golden." from the West: "Silence is like a cancer grows." (From a Simon and Garfunkel song?)

I now understand that those kinds of sayings are by no means the real representation of silence. In Yoga, one of the 8 practices are the state of withdraw or you may know it as fasting. Fasting can mean going for a period of time without food, but it can also be the practice of the absence of speech.

Our silence retreat went for 4 days. We lodge in hotels in Santa Clara walking distance from the convention center where the venue was run. We got up early in the morning to do Yoga asana and Kriya practice, then had breakfast, and then we sat for a few guided meditations a day, while having lunch and dinner together in between. At night after dinner, we had Satsang and Q&A with Sri Sri. We were also separated in groups to do service (seva), such as serving food at various meals. The event had 1000 participants, but everything was so well organized we hardly had any issues with the crowd.

All I have to say is, being in silence is really a treat. The flowers were more vibrant, the air was clearer and things around me were more positive. The mind was calmer and more opened to kindness. The simple vegetarian food was more tasty and flavorful.

So we didn't talk to nor acknowledge one another, and to my curiosity, people looked so serious. I found it humorous, since I didn't think silence means serious at all.

Based on Sri Sri, there were three types of silence:
1. Keep the mouth shut.
2. Withdraw senses, not interested in seeing, tasting, smell, etc.
3. Blissful, total satisfaction. Absolute inner contentment.

I enjoyed the Q&A with Sri Sri toward the end of the day after Satsang. Sri Sri answered questions written in pieces of indexed cards that were dropped in the basket throughout the day.

Here are some examples of the wisdoms shared:
Q: What to do when people criticize me?
A: When someone criticize you, let it bounce back, shake hands tomorrow, and you are a bigger person. Behave as if it doesn't matter to you at all.
There are two possibilities when someone criticize you:
1. Because they are attached to you. They point out your mistakes, risk friendship. They want you to be better. True friends show your flaws.
2. They are tense, ignorant, jealous. In this case, be compassionate to them. They are suffering, why be upset with them?

Q: How do I find my soul mate?
A: No soul mate because you are a bundle of thoughts, no moment of clarity and spontaneity in action.
Once you meet your soul, then you can meet anyone as your soul mate.

Every day in the evening, the basket was full of questions, and every evening he would answer a few questions from that day. In the last evening, when the basket was brought to him, Sri Sri looked at the pile of questions and said: "Again?" We laughed. He sat there holding the full basket in his lap, and asked: "Does it really matter?" He sat in silence with his head rested in his palm, and just looked around from right to left, from the front to the back of the auditorium, with his usual smile on his face and a hint of a tease.

I wondered what he was thinking. Was he upset? The the guru can't be angry. Was he searching for some jokes or wisdom to talk about? His talk yesterday was so excellent, how could he top that?

Finally after 20 minutes or so, he spoke: "This is the latest technology, all answered in silence. Come and download your answers." I laughed!

He smiled and spoke softly: "Each of you are so complete. Like the bud of the flower, just need to blossom, need silence, dispassion, contentment, clarity, spontaneity."