Aware of the sound of silence
no further words are needed
to rest in the present here now.
“Earth to God, come in please” — two dozen times
Thought, awareness, and the sound of silence
Thought and awareness
“Experience is always now, here and now… All that — memories of the past or anticipation of the future — is happening now… The future is a thought in the mind, in the present, and the past is a memory. You can be aware of thinking, be aware of thought. We are not our thoughts; our thoughts are artificial creations… that we tend to identify with, intimidate ourselves with…”
“Thinking is a critical faculty… a very useful function to have. But as an identity it’s a failure. You’re not at all what you think, you know — what you think you are is not what you are. And yet we tend to believe what we think we are…
Thought is a creation. So in this very present moment, what is it that isn’t a thought? Awareness isn’t a thought.”
“When we develop awareness, we’re coming from intuitive awareness rather than from personal experience. … Getting beyond that to an awareness before the personality can arise or cease — that’s awareness or sati-sampajañña [in Pali].”
“Trust in the awareness as that which holds you, which you’re resting in, in which you can observe. Witness the observer…”
The sound of silence
“I notice the kind of background sound which I refer to as the sound of silence, a resonating vibratory sound… a high-pitched kind of vibration that’s always present. … When you recognize this sound of silence your thinking process stops — you can rest in this stream. It’s like a stream. It isn’t like ordinary sound that rises and ceases or begins and ends. … Behind that, behind all other sounds is this sound of silence. … It’s always present, it’s just there whether I notice it or not.”
“One can see, recognize the sound of silence, the reality of consciousness — it has no boundary because it takes consciousness to be aware of this subtle, ringing, resonating vibration — and as we explore that, it has no boundary. We don’t create it, it’s like space, it’s infinite.”
“We’re not projecting or experiencing the consciousness through perceiving any particular thing but through awareness. That’s why I keep pointing to this sense of attentiveness and listening, like the sound of silence. I use this listening or hearing… learning to pay attention and recognize what awareness really is. … It keeps you fully present.”
Non-thinking and boundless awareness
“In this you recognize non-thinking. And as I said before, you have to think to create yourself as a person. With non-thinking, there’s no longer a person. …
This is the point: present-moment awareness of the infinite that embraces the finite. To me the great gift of being human is that we can do this.”
— The Sound of Silence, Ajahn Sumedho, pp. 21, 37, 63-70
Floating harmony of silence
