What is silence? We know it as the absence of sound. If we removed sound, do we have silence? If you sit with your eyes closed with no noise around you, can you experience silence or does your inner voice begin to chatter? In your mind, isn’t that chattering the same as the noise you hear? How about the thoughts floating in and out of your mind? How about the images, the smells, and the emotions from those thoughts? Don’t these things create noise in your mind? True silence is the absence of all thoughts, emotions, senses, stresses, and desires from your mind.

Today, life has many distractions and obstacles to keep our minds occupied. Our lives are filled with noise and it has become a part of who we are. How can we turn that off? This is why silence is hard find. It can’t be bought with money. Its price is practice and persistence to experience it. Millions are willing to pay with a lifetime of practice to experience it and to find clarity in life through it.

Some things to think about:

• Why do we want to experience silence?
• Have you noticed that our thoughts control the body? Fear increase our pulse, make our hand sweat, and make our breathing quickens.
• There are dozens of thoughts going through our mind each hour. What happens to our mind and body when we are caught up in these emotions and thoughts?
• If we spend most of our time working in stress or fear, what would happen to our mind and body? Don’t we develop anxiety and illnesses that need medication?
• What would happens if we can let go of these thoughts? How would our mind and body react? Would you feel calm and at peace?

Ever been stuck with a problem you can’t seem to solve? You’ve been trying your best, but you still can’t make heads or tails of it. So, you decide to take a break. As you walk into the kitchen, you see the coffee dripping into the pot and suddenly, the solution hits you in the head! It is so obvious! You can’t understand why you didn’t see it before. That is the spark or moment that bridged the gap between being clueless to clear understanding. That is an “Aha!” moment.

This moment of clarity is like having a flash of light giving us a glimpse of the layout in pitch black room as we try to navigate around all the fixtures safely. In just one glimpse, all our uncertainties and worry about maneuvering through the room is lifted, and we have a good sense of the layout and how to reach our destination. These Aha! moments may help us with our small problems or it may reveal something that changes our lives forever.