The Power of Silence
The Power of Silence,Our ancient sages and seers have said that while you can float in the air, walk on water, or conquer the entire world, understanding the nature of your own mind is the most difficult task of all. Have you ever noticed that when you make a firm resolution to do something, your mind often pulls you in the opposite direction? For instance, if you decide to quit smoking and make a strong commitment to yourself, yet shortly after, your mind drags you back toward the cigarette, placing you right where you started.
The Power of Silence
This dilemma of the mind and its cunning ways often places a person in opposition to their own intentions, and this is one of the greatest challenges we face. And this doesn’t apply just to cigarettes. In life, we all have habits or behaviors we wish to change, but often find it incredibly difficult to do so. However, if we strive to become observers of our mind, to be a witness to it, we can catch the mind’s patterns.
Once we grasp how our mind operates, we can break any habit, or conversely, adopt a new one—whether it’s the habit of waking up early in the Brahma Muhurta (early morning) or engaging in any task that we usually feel lazy about.
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The root cause behind our habits is our mind, yet we tend to overlook it. As a result, later, all we are left with is regret.
The story I am going to share with you today will reveal certain methods through which you can fully grasp the workings of your mind, observe it, and, consequently, change your habits.
Story: The Depths of the Mind | The Power of Silence
Once, a talkative disciple came to a guru’s ashram to receive spiritual education. He rarely listened to what his guru had to say, but was always eager to share his own thoughts. One day, the guru was discussing meditation—how to meditate and its importance. All the disciples sat in silence, listening to their guru’s words. The guru explained that no matter what kind of meditation you practice, to dive deeply into meditation, you must first awaken love in your heart.
While meditating, you need to continuously observe your mind and the thoughts that arise within it.
Before the guru could finish his explanation, the talkative disciple interrupted him. He said, “Guruji, I’ve been observing my mind for a long time. I carefully watch every thought that comes and goes, but even so, I haven’t seen any changes in my habits. I often wake up late in the morning, and every night I resolve that tomorrow I will wake up early, meditate, and observe my mind—but I just can’t seem to do it.
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I’ve discussed this with my fellow disciples, but none of them have any answers. No one in the ashram talks to each other; everyone is always silent. There are no discussions. How are we supposed to understand our minds in such silence? How can we observe our minds? Unless we openly discuss our thoughts and habits with one another, how will we ever understand them? Please explain to the other disciples that we should at least share our thoughts with each other. We should talk about what goes on in our minds during meditation, how our thoughts and habits change. There should be discussions in the ashram about meditation.”
The guru asked the disciple, “Why do you want to know what’s going on in others’ minds? How will that benefit you? Do you really need to know what others are thinking to practice self-observation? What difference does it make to you what’s going on in their minds? Can you answer that?”
The talkative disciple was not expecting this kind of response from the guru. He thought to himself, “The guru is right. What benefit will I get from knowing others’ thoughts? Even if I share my thoughts with others, or know what’s going on in their minds, how will it help me understand my own mind?”
Caught in his own question, the disciple couldn’t give a concrete answer. However, wanting to assert himself in front of the other disciples, he said, “Guruji, if we knew what thoughts others have during meditation, and how they observe them, it would make it easier for us to meditate as well. We would also be able to observe our thoughts and understand our minds better. Don’t you think that discussing how to observe one’s mind during deep meditation would benefit all the disciples?”
The guru asked, “Let’s assume that someone is capable of diving deep into meditation and tells you how they observe their thoughts and mind. Do you think that simply knowing this will allow you to meditate deeply as well? If you think so, then let me tell you this—you will get caught in the web of your own mind. Even if you learn how to meditate deeply, without self-observation, it will be impossible for you to have the same experience.”
“Your mind will try to follow this method, and instead of being present, you will be caught up in those thoughts. Your mind will be occupied with the task you’ve given it, and you will be caught up in doing that task alongside your mind. In that case, how will you observe your mind? Because you will have become one with it. You can only truly understand your mind when you step back and observe it from a distance. To understand anything, you must first detach yourself from it.
If you merge with it, you will never be able to understand it. You will simply be caught up in it—like how you try to understand your thoughts, but in the process, you become entangled in them. Have you ever experienced this?”
The disciple nodded in agreement, saying, “Guruji, whenever I try to observe my thoughts, this happens. I get lost in my thoughts. After a while, I remember that I was supposed to be observing my thoughts. Then I try to become the observer again, but after some time, I get lost in my thoughts once more.”
The guru then explained to all the disciples, “Just as an angry person can never observe their own anger because they become one with it. They identify so strongly with their anger that they cannot see how it’s affecting their mind. They cannot see that this anger is making their mind unhappy because they lack the skill to step back and observe it.
This is why all these practices exist, so that you can become just a witness, an observer of everything in its true form. When you see things in their true form, you realize their transient nature. You come to understand that all things are fleeting, but the consciousness that observes them is eternal. It never dies; it is constant, and that is what true awareness is. Awareness is never bound to anything.”
The guru continued, “It is your awareness that allows you to see others as they truly are. The deeper your awareness, the more capable you become of detaching from things and seeing them clearly. So, strive to elevate your awareness, so that you can see the true nature of things with clarity.”
The disciple asked, “Gurudev, I am beginning to understand some of what you’re saying, but there’s one thing I don’t understand. How do we raise our awareness? What do we need to do to stay more conscious?”
Discussing this further, the guru said, “Start by remaining silent. Stay quiet and observe your thoughts, the processes of your mind, and your experiences. Experiences come and go. They are impermanent and will not stay with us forever, but the mind keeps trying to hold onto them. When you have a pleasant experience, your mind wants to have that experience again and again. And in this chase, your mind traps you.
Your awareness becomes a slave to your mind. This is what happens to someone addicted to cigarettes, alcohol, or any harmful habit. Their awareness becomes enslaved by their mind. If you want to free your awareness from your mind, you must first learn to be silent, to be quiet.”
The guru explained, “Your habit of talking too much, your desire to hear others’ experiences, fills your mind even more. But to free your awareness, you must learn to empty your mind. When you empty your mind, only then will you begin to see the true nature of your awareness. You will understand how to elevate your awareness by remaining silent and present in the moment. Awareness is our true nature, but we have forgotten it because we have become slaves to our minds. That is why we need to free our awareness from the grip of the mind.
To do this, start by remaining silent, observing your thoughts and experiences. When you become a witness to your mind, you see that a thought comes, then it goes; one thought leaves, and another one arrives. Just like how people come and go on a busy street, thoughts come and go in the landscape of our minds.”
Gradually, when we stop attaching ourselves to thoughts and stop getting carried away by them, those thoughts start to dissolve. Eventually, the landscape of the mind becomes completely empty, and for the first time, we experience our true awareness. We come to understand that our awareness is our true joy, our real self. To attain this joy, we must remove the weeds from the landscape of our minds. This doesn’t require effort—just observing those thoughts without getting attached to them. A thought comes, it goes; another comes, then it goes.
Simply observe them as a witness, and slowly, those thoughts will dissolve.
To achieve this state, we must practice silently observing our thoughts and emotions. We must understand our emotions—when do we get angry, when do we feel happiness—and we must observe them from a distance. Whenever we feel angry or happy, we immediately become excited, and in that excitement, we lose the ability to observe those emotions from a distance. But if we remain calm and composed, we can understand our emotions.
Once we understand our emotions, we realize that no emotion lasts forever. Happiness doesn’t stay forever, nor does sadness. Once we understand this