The Power of Silence – by David H.

Davis

The Power of Silence

by David H. Davis

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The power of silence! We rarely think about it. We rarely do it. Is there nothing we’re
missing?

Have we missed our fill of emptiness?

My First experience with silence was back in 1965. I was working on quieting my mind.

I had grown up with an extremely noisy mind. I thought so much that I seldom fell asleep
before I am even as a young child.

I thought about everything, over and over, each time everything, finding greater depths of'
information.

My head was overflowing with thoughts.

After graduating from high school I moved into a spiritual community. Well, most people
called it a hippie-house, but I didn't. Among lots of other things, I practiced yoga and began
to try to learn how to meditate. I only first realized how noisy my mind was when I tried to
quiet it.

We learned Mantric meditation. Mantras are words repeated over and over.

These words can be chanted out loud or repeated silently within. They can be in any language
but at the time they were in Sanskrit. In spiritual work, initially, new and unknown words are
used to eliminate attaching old meanings and concepts to them, which would only incur more
thought. The first mantra I ever received was given to me with no meaning at all. So I
repeated this meaningless sound over and over for fifteen minutes each day, as I quietly sat,
with my eyes closed. Day after day a few things were at work here. Firstly there was my daily
practice. i would sit in the same place at the same time each day. A pattern formed. A little
discipline entered my life. My mind began to budge a little. It would begin to live me fifteen
minutes, knowing it had 2 hours and 45 minutes left to itself.

This practice wasn't easy and took months to show any result. Another thing happening here
was my intent. I intended to meditate. Doing this every day, I showed my sub-conscious
mind that I was serious about this. It became inclined to aid me. It became a natural event and
part of my makeup. The time of my meditations increased my rebellious mind and body
relaxed. (Nothing like lots of body sensations when you trying to find calmness.)

I reached a small plateau. There are times in meditation that it appears that you are making
great strides. Then there are times when nothing at all seems to be happening. I use the words
"appears" and "seems" because in reality, these states are always present, it is the removal of
limitations that reveal them. In other words, my mind is naturally clear; it's just the thoughts
The Power of Silence – by David H. Davis

that keep me from that experience. So, stop the thoughts. Keep the consciousness whole. The
thoughts only divide it up. Our striving is the One-Mind, whole and complete.

My meditations expanded, though still at a basic level.

My adventures continued and I found myself oil the "other side." I mean California. My Page | 2
strivings became more focused as the world became more peripheral. I had "dropped out" the
civilized world. There was less and less to think about. My meditations grew. I was using a
different mantra. I was using Om.

The first time I had ever come in contact with the word Orn, was when I read
Siddhartha b Herman Hesse in high school. I had no idea what it meant. It did plant a seed
though. Later I learned that Om was a Sanskrit word for light. It didn't mean light, it was
light.
The vibration of the word was the sound of light. It was the word spoken by God in the
creation stories. It was the sound of the universe. It's the background noise of the universe
that science has found, the resounding mmm sound.

I began chanting Om in my head. This was not for a few- minutes but all the time. Sure,
would fall into thought a lot at first, but I kept working at it. Before long, I found myself
talking less and less as I became clearer and progressively empty. Thoughts would coins and
recognizing them they would go. Om would remain. I kept the word recycling, in my head.

I went up north of San Francisco to Mendicino. I had a distant older cousin who made
jewellery there. I visited for awhile. As I was going, and I had said nothing about my inner
thoughts or lack of them, he gave me a silver pendant that he had made. It was the size and
shape of a silver dollar. The pendant was a dark disk encircled at the edge with one shining
symbol on the face. It was the Sanskrit word Om. It hung around my neck from then on.

It was a special treasure. And I continued with my discipline, emptying the mind and filling
with the sound of 0m.

This went on for some time until my thoughts had ceased. Actually, they never cease, but
they got really quiet and non-interruptive. So I was basically reduced to Oni, but my mind
was still not quiet. It was filled With Om. I had been letting go of everything but that sound.
It was a tool. The work was done. Time to let go of the tool.

I remember standing out on the street when this occurred to me. I removed the pendant. I held
on to the other end of the cord and swung it into a parking meter that was in front me- It flew
apart into myriad pieces. My mind became quiet -No. it became empty, void.

And a most curious thing happened.

The Power of Silence – by David H. Davis

The trees began Om-ing! The ground below my feet was chanting this cosmic word! And
around me, everything joined the chorus. I was turned inside-out as my consciousness
expanded in all directions. I was in the middle of a three-dimensional mandala as I became
one with the One. Then there was no I anymore, just the infinite glory and joy of creation.
The empty mind was overflowing.
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Part II

Years later I had quite a different experience of silence. By day, I worked as groundskeeper at
Southern Methodist University. Behind this veil, I was a Brother in mystical Holy Order. I
was living in Dallas as a missionary. Easter was approaching.

In our spiritual practice we worked the Christian Mysteries, so Easter was an important
Holiday (holy day) for us. Our spiritual disciplines brought true liberation although they
appeared to be limiting.

During lent we kept silence from dinner until sleep, meditating for three hours each night.
During Holy Week (the week preceding Easter Sunday) we kept total silence, and ended with
a three-day fast (Just water).

I want to say up front that I wasn't a very good worker; my job was to take care of the fine
arts building. I began my day pushing a nail down onto a grindstone. You need a sharp nail
the end of your stick- to pick up all the butts and paper strewn around. There was so much
time to do so little that I began some alchemical grounds-keeping.

This means that working on one level produces results on another one. As below, so above
Alchemical transference, which this is, call work no matter what you are doing. It comes
down to knowing what you are doing. Are you vacuuming the rug or are you cleaning your
sub-conscious? Are you scraping the wallpaper off the wall or scraping sediment off your
soul? I was picking up the scattered trash around the grounds, but I was really picking trash
thoughts from my mind.

Any work can be a deeper work. I took my work to different places. I would develop martial
arts techniques when spearing cigarette butts. I learned the Zen of raking. I learned to listen
and talk to the plants. But I digress.

I had little to do. So I began to do little. I would spend more time inside the building reading
or talking to students. I was a bad worker.

It was Holy Week and I was at work. I had made friends with the two other gardeners so they
knew I was practicing silence that week. I hadn’t found it necessary to let anyone else know.
The Power of Silence – by David H. Davis

Up until this point I had never had any run-ins with the boss. On Good Friday he cut me to
pieces. It was morning. Everyone was getting ready. This is when I sharpened the nail-on-a-
stick. The walls were metal., the ceiling was high and the air was hot. There was an audience
of at least twenty-five. The Boss called me over.

He knew I was a Brother, but if anything, that was a strike against me. He let out a string of Page | 4
curses intermingled with comments on my rotten work ethic. It poured from his mouth for
five minutes. His face was contorted and sweat dripped to the floor. It was hot.

I just stood there silently looking at him. He raged on. I was at peace. My two friends stood
there and watched. He finally finished and I just nodded, acknowledging his talk. I recall
hadn't heard any of it, although I did get the gist. I Just sent him love and light and the
negative stuff never touched me. The power of silence?

Later my friends told me the boss's reaction. (I hadn't even thought about it.). I guess it kind
of blew his mind, he said he had never in all his life chewed someone out who never said
word back. He couldn't believe I had just stood there without defending myself, that I just
stood there and smiled back. I just didn't react. Ile was hit with himself.

In simplicity there is great potency. The less we do, the greater impact we have I wasn't just
standing there, but I was allowing the Love of God to pour through.

We can do nothing and nothing happen, or we could not do anything and allow all things to
happen. When we do nothing, it's still an action, a "doing." When we don't do anything there
is no action. It's not as subtle as it appears. Do we blank our mind or allow our mind to be
blank?

When we do things, it's based on the false assumption that there is an "us" that is separate
from everything else. The illusion that there is a "doer" that is separate from the "doing.
This is frustrating to the "earth mind" that accepts individuality without question.

Can you imagine all the cells in your body acting individually? they would be “doing
something all right but you as the whole would not be able to get anything done. However
when the cells work as a whole system, allowing you to act through them (like walking
across the room) things happen.

We are silencing the ego. We are silencing the lies. We are silencing the distractions. We
have to do this within. It's not getting up and turning off the TV. It's going within and turning
off the TV. It’s the power of silence.

The author, David Davis, is, a long-time teacher, poet, and metaphysician.