Rob Rabbin

A JOURNEY TO SILENCE Text of a talk by Robert Rabbin Unity Church of Salem October 7, 2001

Good morning. We're going to do something a little different than you are used to. We're going to combine the word, the lesson, and the meditation into a single meditative experience, a journey inward to the Silent center of our being.

Please, gently close your eyes relax relax your body relax your mind do not chase your thoughts, let them come and go in the sky of your mind. Breathe deeply breathe deeply once again and now, just listen, just sit, just be let everything go do not worry about what has happened do not worry about what might happen just sit in the present allow yourself to be enveloped by Silence allow yourself to fall deeply into your own Self, into that deep place of awareness, of stillness, of peace of Silence.

As you rest in your own Self, I want to read words that came to me from Silence. As I read, please let yourself be drawn inward to the place from which these words came. As you listen to these words, also listen to your own breath, and let both take you deeper inward, to Silence. For it is in this place of inner Silence that the greatest truth is revealed. Silence is that place where all differences dissolve, where all conflicts cease, where all fear turns to love, where all souls shine with the same single flame of radiance.

A kind of knowing we call wisdom, or insight, or realization, comes easily into the mind when it becomes still and falls into Silence, when it gives up trying to understand, when it stops creating and projecting pictures and ideas and concepts onto the pure screen of the innocent world. This kind of knowing is pure revelation, a clarity untouched by thoughts or words or images. When we allow this knowing into our minds, our very lives become as clear as this knowing, as quiet as this Silence.

In stillness, we enter ancient forests and mountains whose peaks rise beyond where our eyes can see. And from beyond where our eyes can see, Silence appears. Be still, and Silence appears.

We can live within this Silence every moment, being guided and inspired by it, for this Silence is always present, even in the midst of our busy and burdened lives. To live in this Silence, we have only to be stillŠto be stillŠwe have only to be still until the weightless presence of Silence comes forward, from within our own being, to surround us with its presence.

We have all experienced this stillness, this Silence. It is a place known to us, though we may not remember; familiar, though we may not admit it; treasured, though we may discount it; utterly real, though we cannot prove it.

Silence is our truest Self, the one that cannot live in the small houses of time and place, of self and other, of world and God. This silent knowing unifies and makes whole what had seemed chaotic and fragmented. In this wholeness, we experience a oneness of being in which conflicts are resolved, confusions are clarified, and fears subside. Within this wholeness, we become Silence itself, and we suddenly speak without words and know without thought.

When we face the vast, eternal Silence, the mind stops. When the mind stops, an eruption of pure awareness pours through the gaps between our thoughts into the stopped mind. In that timeless moment we become what we have always been: pure Silence, pure awareness, pure joy.

This Silence is the real teacher, the real teaching, the real path. This Silence is what we seek; it is who we are.

Listen to your own Silence. Love your own Silence. Share your Silence. Let your Silence consume all doubt, all fear, all vanity, all differences, all pain. Love what comes from within you, and give yourself to that.

This is the true Silence. The Silence of our true being which lives beyond words and beyond concepts. It is so true and so real that everything else falls silent before this Silence. Silence is simply giving ourselves to our true Self, and never looking back, never having a second thought, never having a doubt, ever again.

To realize the highest truth, we have nothing more to do than what we are doing now-loving Silence and allowing what is within us to reveal itself, allowing what is true within to reveal itself, allowing what is real within to reveal itself. We have only to get used to this feeling of Silence, and know it as the feeling of our true Self.

The feeling of a distress, the feeling of disappointment, of pain, of loneliness, of unfulfilled desire, of one problem or another...these are not the feeling of the true Self. This feeling now-this one of peace and depth and beauty and simplicity-is what we are. This is what we feel like, what we look like, what we sound like: this is our true Self. This moment is the beginning of the true fulfillment.

This moment is the beginning of truth. This is Silence, simplicity, and clarity. Sitting silently and simply, neither leaning to the left nor leaning to the right, neither looking into the past nor anticipating the future, but simply sitting here, being present, listening deeply-this reveals our true face.

If we can live within this feeling as truth, when the onslaught of thoughts comes back, when the busyness of our lives returns, when the demands and pressures of living come back, we will never mistake those for our truth, because the simple truth of Silence is larger than any condition, any circumstance, any demand or pressure of living. Those are passing clouds in the sky of this Silence, this truth, this glory.

In Silence, we transform, we become reborn, we are resurrected from darkness to light. From confusion to clarity. From suffering to ease. From anxiety to freedom. Resting in Silence, we will be moved by that which moves all else. We will move with everything, as everything, without knowing how, or why, or when; but we will move and be moved, in Silence where everything is sacred. We will be free. We will be love. This is freedom. Silence, love, freedom exist within us as us. This is the truth.

For a few more moments, a few precious moments, let's sit together quietly, opening into Silence relaxing into Silence, breathing into Silence being in Silence touching our soul and knowing it as the soul of the world.

From this still place, from this Silence, from this truth, we can do no harm, we can only offer peace, for that is what we are. This is the greatest gift we can give, our true Self. We don't have to find this place, because it is not lost it has never been lost.

As you slowly bring your attention back to your body, and back to the room, as you slowly open your eyes to again face the world, don't lose the feeling of this inner Silence. The world needs your peace now, the world needs your true Self now, the world needs your Silence now.