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Tit Nath Khan
Silence. Calm in a world full of noise
Thich Nhat Hanh
The Power of Quiet in a World Full of Noise
Published with permission from HarperCollins Publishers and Andrew Nurnberg Literary Agency
Legal support for the publishing house is provided by Vegas Lex law firm.
© Thich Nhat Hanh, 2015. Published by arrangement with HarperOne, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers
© Translation, edition in Russian, design. LLC "Mann, Ivanov and Ferber", 2016
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This book is well complemented by:
mindfulness
How to find harmony in our crazy world
Mark Williams, Danny Penman
Attentive brain
Scientific view of meditation
Daniel Siegel
Conscious meditation
Practical guide pain relief and stress reduction
Vidyamala Burch, Danny Penman
Introduction
How much time we spend on the pursuit of happiness, not noticing that the world around us is full of miracles. Living and walking on earth is a miracle in itself. And yet most of us are in a hurry in our search, as if there could be a more beautiful place. Beauty calls to us every day, but we hear it very rarely.
In order for us to hear beauty and respond to its call, silence is necessary. If we do not feel silence within ourselves, and our mind and body are full of noise, then we are not able to hear the voice of beauty.
In our head, the same radio station called “Endless Reflections” plays all the time. Our minds are full of noise, so we don't hear the call of life, the call of love. Our heart calls to us, but we do not hear it either. We don't have time for this.
Practicing mindfulness calms the noise around us. Without awareness, we are distracted by all sorts of things. Sometimes regret and suffering for the past. We recall events and sensations in our memory only to relive the pain we once experienced again and again. We so easily get caught up in our past.
We are also distracted by our future. A person who worries about the future and is afraid of it falls into the same deep trap as a person shackled by the past. Anxiety, fears and uncertainty about the future do not allow us to hear the call of happiness. Therefore, the future becomes like a dungeon.
Even if we try to be in the present, many of us get distracted and feel empty, like there is a vacuum inside of us. At the same time, we long for and wait for something to come that will make our lives more interesting. We are pinning our hopes on something that will change our existence, which at the moment we regard as painful: nothing special around.
Mindfulness is often spoken of as a bell that tells us to put everything aside and listen carefully. Sometimes we use the sound of a real bell or some other sign to help us remember that we should not be distracted by the noise that exists around and within us. When we hear the sound of a bell, we freeze. We are mindful of our every inhalation and exhalation, providing a place for silence. We tell ourselves, “When I breathe in, I am aware that I am breathing in.” By consciously inhaling and exhaling, and focusing only on the breath, we quiet any noise within us: voices that speak of the past, the future, or our unbridled desires for something unknown.
In just two or three seconds of conscious breathing, we wake up and realize that we are living, that we are breathing. We are here. We exist. The noise inside us disappears. And a deep and expressive space is formed. We gain the ability to respond to the call of the surrounding beauty with the words: “I am here. I am free. I hear you".
What does "I'm here" mean. It means: “I exist, I am actually here. I am not lost in the past or the future, I am not lost in my thoughts, I am not lost in the noise that exists within and around me. I'm here". And in order to really be "here", you must be free from thoughts, worries, fear, passions. “I am free” is a very powerful statement because the truth is that many of us are not free. We do not have the freedom to hear, see, and simply exist.
I live in the countryside of southwest France, where I practice a type of silence called sublime silence with my students at my meditation center Plum Village. Practicing sublime silence is simple. If we speak, we speak. But if we are doing something else, such as eating, walking, or working, then we are doing only those actions. We don't do them at the same time as talking. We do them in joyful sublime silence. Thus we are freed to hear the deepest calls of our heart.
One of the recent days, many of the inhabitants of our center, both monks and students, were eating outdoors, sitting on the grass. Each took his own food and joined the group of those seated. We are arranged in concentric circles, one smaller circle inside a larger circle, and so on. We didn't say anything.
I sat on the grass first. Sit down and engage in conscious breathing in order to achieve silence within yourself. I listened to the birds singing, the sounds of the wind and enjoyed the beauty of spring. I did not wait for others to come and sit next to me in order to start eating. I just sat and enjoyed the environment. Other people took food, came up to me and sat down on the ground.
Silence reigned. But I felt that this silence is not as deep as it could be. Maybe it was because people were distracted to take food, move around with their plates, and then sit down. I silently watched.
I had a small bell, and when everyone sat down on the grass, I rang it. We just spent a week practicing mindful breathing, which was initiated by the sound of a bell. So now everyone heard him well. With the first sound of the bell calling for awareness, there was silence. But now she was different. It was a real silence, because each of us stopped even thinking. We focused completely on inhaling when we inhaled, and on exhaling when we exhaled. We all breathed together, and our general silence created a powerful energy field around. Such silence can be called "deafening" because it is very expressive. With such silence, the voices of birds and the sounds of the wind are heard much more clearly. Before that, I heard both birds and the wind, but they sounded different, because I had not yet reached such a deep silence.
The practice of achieving silence, which helps to get rid of all internal noise, is quite simple. By doing the appropriate exercises, everyone is able to master it. In a state of "sublime silence" you can walk, sit, enjoy food. In this state, you will be free enough to appreciate all the wonder of life. In such silence, healing itself, both mental and physical, becomes available to you. You will be able to be, to be here and now. Because you will be truly free: free from the regrets and suffering associated with the past; free from fears and feelings of uncertainty associated with the future; free from all mental nonsense. To achieve this feeling of silence alone is good, but to achieve it collectively means to receive a particularly healing and energetically powerful effect.
Sound without sound
Silence is often described as the absence of sound. However, silence itself is a powerful sound. I recall that although the winter of 2014/15 was not very cold in France, it was freezing in North America. The temperature at times dropped below twenty degrees Celsius, and blizzards constantly sank. I saw pictures of Niagara Falls: the water couldn't fall, it froze on the fly. I was very impressed with this picture. The cascade of water stopped - along with the sound.
About forty years ago I was in Thailand, in Chiang Mai, in a community of young people. I lived in a hut by a rocky stream. The sound of falling water could be heard around the clock. I enjoyed doing breathing exercises, doing my laundry, and even taking a short afternoon nap on the rocks around the stream. Wherever I was, I heard the sound of falling water. Day and night I heard the same sound. I looked at the bushes and trees around me and thought: “From their very birth, these plants hear this sound. And if we assume that it suddenly breaks off and for the first time they hear the “sound of no sound”, that is, silence? Just imagine it if you can. The water suddenly stops running, and the sound of falling water that the surrounding plants have heard all their lives, day and night, no longer exists. Think of how surprised these plants will be when they first hear "the sound of no sound."
Five real sounds
Bodhisattva is a Buddhist term for a being who has compassion for people and is called upon to alleviate their suffering. In Buddhism, a bodhisattva named Avalokiteshvara, or the Bodhisattva of Listening and All-Seeing, is often mentioned. The very name Avalokiteshvara means a being who deeply listens to all the sounds of the world.
According to Buddhist tradition, Avalokiteshvara is able to capture all the sounds that exist on earth. He can also make five different sounds that heal the world. If you find silence within yourself, you will also hear these five sounds.
The first of these is the Miraculous Sound, the sound of the miracle of life calling to you. This is the sound of birds singing, the sound of falling rain, and so on.
God is sound. Sound is the creator of the universe. Everything starts with sound.
The second sound is the sound of the One Who Watches over everything in the World. It is the sound of silence, the sound of listening.
The third sound is the sound of Brahma, the God of creation. This is the mysterious "om" sound that has a long history in Indian spiritual culture. It is believed that the sound "om" has the ability to create everything in the world. Buddhism scriptures claim that he created the cosmos, the world and the universe. The Gospel of John contains the same idea: "In the beginning was the Word" (John 1:1). According to the oldest Hindu texts, the Vedas, this word that created the world is the word "om". In the Indian Vedic tradition, it is the ultimate embodiment of reality, or God.
Many modern astronomers have come to believe in something similar. They searched for the beginning of time and the beginning of the cosmos and came up with the hypothesis that there was a "big loud explosion like sound" at the beginning of the universe.
The fourth sound is the sound of the Rising Tide. It symbolizes the voice of the Buddha. The Buddha's teaching eliminates misunderstandings, disasters and misfortunes and is able to transform everything. It is all-pervading and all-powerful.
The fifth sound is the sound that surpasses all Sounds of the Universe. It is the sound of transience and fickleness, reminding us not to get too attached to any particular word or sound. Many scholars present the Buddha's teachings as complex and difficult to understand. But Buddha always spoke very simply and did not heap words. Therefore, if any part of his teaching seems difficult, it is not the actual words of the Buddha. Wherever you are, you can hear this fifth sound everywhere. Even if you are in prison, you can hear a sound that surpasses all sounds in the universe.
Our biggest concern
When you manage to subdue all the noise within yourself, when you manage to achieve a "deafening silence", then you can hear a deep call within yourself. It is your heart that is trying to tell you something, but you are not yet able to hear it, because your mind is busy with noise. This noise distracted you day and night. Your head was full of thoughts, especially negative ones.
In ordinary life, most of us are in pursuit of comfort - material and emotional, and these daily worries take away all the time. We are very busy with them: how to earn enough money, how to secure food, housing and other wealth. We also have emotional worries: whether a particular person loves us, whether our position at work is secure, and so on. All these questions make us worry almost constantly. We are concerned about finding reliable friends, but those with whom it would not be difficult. We are looking for something in life that we can rely on.
We devote ninety-nine percent of our time to such concerns, both material and spiritual. And this is understandable: we want to satisfy everyday needs, because we want to feel safe. But many of us are preoccupied with meeting our needs beyond those that are basic. Nothing threatens our physical security, we are full, we have a roof over our heads and a loving family. And yet we are in a state of constant excitement.
Your deepest concern, like most, is one that you have not even heard of yet. Each of us has worries of a higher order that have nothing to do with worries material or emotional. What do we want from our life? This is a fundamental question. We are here in the present. But why are we here? What is each of us as an individual? What do we want to do with our life? These are questions that usually do not have enough time to answer.
And these questions do not belong to the category of purely philosophical. If we are not able to answer them, then we have no right to expect that we will achieve peace, which means that we will not receive joy from life, because joy comes only with peace. Many believe that we will never find the answers. But if you start practicing mindfulness, you will hear answers within yourself, because there will be silence inside you. You will find answers to some questions and hear the deep call of your heart.
Asking the question "Who am I?" and with some time and focus, you will find amazing answers to it. You will see that you are an extension of your ancestors. They and your parents are present in every cell of your body. You are inseparable from them. If you remove your ancestors from your "I", then practically nothing will remain of your "I".
You may know that you are made up of several elements, such as water. If you remove water from the body, then you will no longer remain. You are made up of earth. If you remove the earth element, nothing will remain of you either. You are air. Air is essential: without it you cannot survive. Therefore, if you remove the element of air from yourself, again nothing will remain of you. Finally, you have the element of fire and light in you. You know you are made of light. Without sunlight, nothing on Earth can grow. If you look further, it turns out that you are made up of the Sun, one of the largest stars in our galaxy. You know that the Earth, like you, is made of stars. You are the stars. On a clear night, look up at the sky and you will realize that you are the stars that shine on us in the night. Thus, you are not just that small body that you used to think of yourself.
No need to run
Mindfulness gives you the inner space and peace to look deep inside yourself and understand who you really are and what you want from your life. You no longer need to chase meaningless goals. You used to run in search of something because you thought that something was critical to your sense of peace and happiness. You forced yourself to achieve sufficient conditions in order to be happy. You thought that right now you didn’t have such conditions, so you, like most others, developed a habit of chasing one after another. “I can’t find peace for myself, I can’t stop and enjoy life in the moment, because for my happiness I need more.” But in this way you simply stifle in yourself the natural joy of life that your birth has provided you. Life is full of wonders, including wonderful sounds. If you can exist, if you can be free, then you can be happy here and now. You have nothing more to chase.
All the joys of life are already there. They are calling to you. If you are able to hear them, then stop the race. You, like all of us, need silence. Stop the noise in your head to enjoy the truly magical sounds of life that you need to listen to. Then you will live your real and deep life.
Chapter 1
Noise Diet
Unless you live as a recluse high in the mountains and without electricity, chances are you are constantly bombarded by noise and information throughout the day. Even if no one is talking to you at the moment and you are not listening to the radio, there are still billboards, phone calls, emails, media, computer monitors, bills, and other means of spreading words and sounds around you. Today it is almost impossible to find at least one corner in airports without a television broadcast. In the morning on the way to work, many do not take their eyes off SMS, messages on social networks and electronic games.
Even in those rare moments when we do not receive any sound or text information from outside, our thoughts constantly run in a vicious circle. How many minutes a day do you spend in real peace, if such minutes even exist?
Silence is very important to us. We need it as much as we need air. We need it just like plants need light.
If your mind is full of words and thoughts, then there is no place for us in it.
People living in cities are already accustomed to a certain level of external noise. Around us, someone is always screaming, traffic is making noise or music is blaring. The constancy of the presence of noise in our lives can even give rise to the need for it. I have friends who, leaving the country or to meditation centers for a week, feel unusual in the absence of noise. Silence seems uncomfortable to them, as they are used to constant noise.
Plants do not grow without light; people don't breathe without air. Everything that exists in the world needs space to exist and grow.
Fear of Silence
Sometimes I get the impression that many people are afraid of silence. We are always consuming something to fill our inner space: texts, music, radio, television, or our thoughts. If silence and emptiness are so important to our happiness, why don't we let them take over? more space in our life?
One of my students of many years has a friend who is kind, not too talkative, and a good listener. But at home, he always turns on the radio or TV, and during breakfast he reads the newspaper.
I know a woman whose daughter loved attending meditation classes at the local Zen temple and wanted to get her mother into it. She said: “Mom, it's really not difficult. You don't have to sit on the floor, you can also sit on chairs. You won't have to do almost anything. We just sit quietly." The woman replied very sincerely: "I'm afraid that's exactly what I won't be able to do."
Even when we are surrounded by people, we feel alone. We are lonely even with someone. There is emptiness inside of us. We don't like it, so we try to fill it up or get rid of it. Modern technology provides many devices that allow us to be "connected" to sounds and information all the time. Today, we are all constantly connected. But we continue to feel alone. We check incoming email and social media messages many times a day. We send emails one after another. We want to share information, we want to receive it. We spend the whole day "connecting".
What are we so afraid of? We may experience feelings of inner emptiness, feelings of isolation, sadness, or restlessness. We may feel abandoned and unloved. We may feel that something very important is missing. We always experience some of these feelings, no matter what we do or what we think. With such an abundance of external stimuli, it is easy to get distracted from true feelings and experiences. But when there is silence, all emotions clearly manifest themselves.
A smorgasbord of irritants
All the sounds that exist around us, and all the thoughts that we constantly scroll through our heads, can be represented as some kind of food. We know edible food, that is, what we eat and swallow. But this is not the only type of food people consume. This is just one of its varieties. What we read, say, shows we watch, online games we play, our experiences, thoughts and worries are also food. It is not surprising that sometimes there is no place for beauty and silence in our consciousness: it is filled with other types of spiritual food.
There are four types of food that each of us consumes daily. These include edible food; information received by our senses and mind; our will and, finally, our consciousness, both individual and collective.
Edible food is what we eat. The second kind of food we consume is immaterial. It comes to us through the senses (eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body receptors), as well as through our mind. It is what we hear, read, smell and touch. Its sources are text messages, the sound of a bus departing, and a billboard you pass by. These are information and ideas, they enter our brain and are processed daily by it.
The third type of food is our volitional acts. They include the will itself, as well as our cares and desires. This food feeds our decisions, actions and dynamics of our development. Without volitional acts, we will not have a desire to do anything, we will not move forward, but we will only wither.
The fourth source of food is our consciousness: individual consciousness, what your mind feeds itself, thoughts and actions, and the collective consciousness and its impact on us.
All types of food are healthy and unhealthy, useful and poisonous, depending on what exactly and in what quantity we consume and how we evaluate the effect of this consumption. For example, if we eat stale food, then we will feel bad afterwards; if we drink too much alcohol in frustration or excitement, hoping to distract ourselves from sad thoughts, then later we feel even more unhappy.
The same applies to other types of food. As for spiritual food, we can be careful and consume information that contributes to our development. Or, conversely, in an attempt to distract ourselves from suffering, we can consume not very useful video games, movies and magazines, or even some kind of rumor. Volitional acts are also divided into healthy (constructive motivation) and unhealthy (pernicious passions or obsessions). The same applies to the collective consciousness. So carefully evaluate the influence that the moods and collective consciousness of a particular group have on you. These moods can give you a feeling of support and joy, or they can awaken anger, gossip, negative competitiveness, or apathy.
Since each type of our food affects us very deeply, it is necessary to carefully monitor the amount consumed. This is the key to self-defense. Without protection, we take in too many poisonous substances, information and ideas. If we do not understand this, then we will be overwhelmed with poisonous sounds and we will fall ill. Conscious caution is like a sun visor covering the sensitive skin of a newborn baby. Without it, the skin will burn and blister. Under the protection of mindfulness, we are able to stay healthy and consume only the food that allows us to achieve success.
In his new book, Tit Nhat Khan, the famed Zen master, shows you how to stay calm despite the constant noise around you. How to be calm even in the most turbulent places. Thanks to breathing exercises and mindfulness techniques, you will be able to live in the present, enjoy the beauty and harmony of the world around you, you will be able to get to know yourself better and understand what you really want in life. Published in Russian for the first time.
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The following excerpt from the book Silence. Peace of mind in a world full of noise (T. N. Khan, 2015) provided by our book partner - the company LitRes.
Introduction
How much time we spend on the pursuit of happiness, not noticing that the world around us is full of miracles. Living and walking on earth is a miracle in itself. And yet most of us are in a hurry in our search, as if there could be a more beautiful place. Beauty calls to us every day, but we hear it very rarely.
In order for us to hear beauty and respond to its call, silence is necessary. If we do not feel silence within ourselves, and our mind and body are full of noise, then we are not able to hear the voice of beauty.
In our head, the same radio station called “Endless Reflections” plays all the time. Our minds are full of noise, so we don't hear the call of life, the call of love. Our heart calls to us, but we do not hear it either. We don't have time for this.
Practicing mindfulness calms the noise around us. Without awareness, we are distracted by all sorts of things. Sometimes regret and suffering for the past. We recall events and sensations in our memory only to relive the pain we once experienced again and again. We so easily get caught up in our past.
We are also distracted by our future. A person who worries about the future and is afraid of it falls into the same deep trap as a person shackled by the past. Anxiety, fears and uncertainty about the future do not allow us to hear the call of happiness. Therefore, the future becomes like a dungeon.
Even if we try to be in the present, many of us get distracted and feel empty, like there is a vacuum inside of us. At the same time, we long for and wait for something to come that will make our lives more interesting. We are pinning our hopes on something that will change our existence, which at the moment we regard as painful: nothing special around.
Mindfulness is often spoken of as a bell that tells us to put everything aside and listen carefully. Sometimes we use the sound of a real bell or some other sign to help us remember that we should not be distracted by the noise that exists around and within us. When we hear the sound of a bell, we freeze. We are mindful of our every inhalation and exhalation, providing a place for silence. We tell ourselves, “When I breathe in, I am aware that I am breathing in.” By consciously inhaling and exhaling, and focusing only on the breath, we quiet any noise within us: voices that speak of the past, the future, or our unbridled desires for something unknown.
In just two or three seconds of conscious breathing, we wake up and realize that we are living, that we are breathing. We are here. We exist. The noise inside us disappears. And a deep and expressive space is formed. We gain the ability to respond to the call of the surrounding beauty with the words: “I am here. I am free. I hear you".
What does "I'm here" mean. It means: “I exist, I am actually here. I am not lost in the past or the future, I am not lost in my thoughts, I am not lost in the noise that exists within and around me. I'm here". And in order to really be "here", you must be free from thoughts, worries, fear, passions. “I am free” is a very powerful statement because the truth is that many of us are not free. We do not have the freedom to hear, see, and simply exist.
I live in the countryside of southwest France, where I practice a type of silence called sublime silence with my students at my meditation center Plum Village. Practicing sublime silence is simple. If we speak, we speak. But if we are doing something else, such as eating, walking, or working, then we are doing only those actions. We don't do them at the same time as talking. We do them in joyful sublime silence. Thus we are freed to hear the deepest calls of our heart.
One of the recent days, many of the inhabitants of our center, both monks and students, were eating outdoors, sitting on the grass. Each took his own food and joined the group of those seated. We are arranged in concentric circles, one smaller circle inside a larger circle, and so on. We didn't say anything.
I sat on the grass first. Sit down and engage in conscious breathing in order to achieve silence within yourself. I listened to the birds singing, the sounds of the wind and enjoyed the beauty of spring. I did not wait for others to come and sit next to me in order to start eating. I just sat and enjoyed the environment. Other people took food, came up to me and sat down on the ground.
Silence reigned. But I felt that this silence is not as deep as it could be. Maybe it was because people were distracted to take food, move around with their plates, and then sit down. I silently watched.
I had a small bell, and when everyone sat down on the grass, I rang it. We just spent a week practicing mindful breathing, which was initiated by the sound of a bell. So now everyone heard him well. With the first sound of the bell calling for awareness, there was silence. But now she was different. It was a real silence, because each of us stopped even thinking. We focused completely on inhaling when we inhaled, and on exhaling when we exhaled. We all breathed together, and our general silence created a powerful energy field around. Such silence can be called "deafening" because it is very expressive. With such silence, the voices of birds and the sounds of the wind are heard much more clearly. Before that, I heard both birds and the wind, but they sounded different, because I had not yet reached such a deep silence.
The practice of achieving silence, which helps to get rid of all internal noise, is quite simple. By doing the appropriate exercises, everyone is able to master it. In a state of "sublime silence" you can walk, sit, enjoy food. In this state, you will be free enough to appreciate all the wonder of life. In such silence, healing itself, both mental and physical, becomes available to you. You will be able to be, to be here and now. Because you will be truly free: free from the regrets and suffering associated with the past; free from fears and feelings of uncertainty associated with the future; free from all mental nonsense. To achieve this feeling of silence alone is good, but to achieve it collectively means to receive a particularly healing and energetically powerful effect.
Sound without sound
Silence is often described as the absence of sound. However, silence itself is a powerful sound. I recall that although the winter of 2014/15 was not very cold in France, it was freezing in North America. The temperature at times dropped below twenty degrees Celsius, and blizzards constantly sank. I saw pictures of Niagara Falls: the water couldn't fall, it froze on the fly. I was very impressed with this picture. The cascade of water stopped - along with the sound.
About forty years ago I was in Thailand, in Chiang Mai, in a community of young people. I lived in a hut by a rocky stream. The sound of falling water could be heard around the clock. I enjoyed doing breathing exercises, doing my laundry, and even taking a short afternoon nap on the rocks around the stream. Wherever I was, I heard the sound of falling water. Day and night I heard the same sound. I looked at the bushes and trees around me and thought: “From their very birth, these plants hear this sound. And if we assume that it suddenly breaks off and for the first time they hear the “sound of no sound”, that is, silence? Just imagine it if you can. The water suddenly stops running, and the sound of falling water that the surrounding plants have heard all their lives, day and night, no longer exists. Think of how surprised these plants will be when they first hear "the sound of no sound."
Five real sounds
Bodhisattva is a Buddhist term for a being who has compassion for people and is called upon to alleviate their suffering. In Buddhism, a bodhisattva named Avalokiteshvara, or the Bodhisattva of Listening and All-Seeing, is often mentioned. The very name Avalokiteshvara means a being who deeply listens to all the sounds of the world.
According to Buddhist tradition, Avalokiteshvara is able to capture all the sounds that exist on earth. He can also make five different sounds that heal the world. If you find silence within yourself, you will also hear these five sounds.
The first of these is the Miraculous Sound, the sound of the miracle of life calling to you. This is the sound of birds singing, the sound of falling rain, and so on.
God is sound. Sound is the creator of the universe. Everything starts with sound.
The second sound is the sound of the One Who Watches over everything in the World. It is the sound of silence, the sound of listening.
The third sound is the sound of Brahma, the God of creation. This is the mysterious "om" sound that has a long history in Indian spiritual culture. It is believed that the sound "om" has the ability to create everything in the world. Buddhism scriptures claim that he created the cosmos, the world and the universe. The Gospel of John contains the same idea: "In the beginning was the Word" (John 1:1). According to the oldest Hindu texts, the Vedas, this word that created the world is the word "om". In the Indian Vedic tradition, it is the ultimate embodiment of reality, or God.
Many modern astronomers have come to believe in something similar. They searched for the beginning of time and the beginning of the cosmos and came up with the hypothesis that there was a "big loud explosion like sound" at the beginning of the universe.
The fourth sound is the sound of the Rising Tide. It symbolizes the voice of the Buddha. The Buddha's teaching eliminates misunderstandings, disasters and misfortunes and is able to transform everything. It is all-pervading and all-powerful.
The fifth sound is the sound that surpasses all Sounds of the Universe. It is the sound of transience and fickleness, reminding us not to get too attached to any particular word or sound. Many scholars present the Buddha's teachings as complex and difficult to understand. But Buddha always spoke very simply and did not heap words. Therefore, if any part of his teaching seems difficult, it is not the actual words of the Buddha. Wherever you are, you can hear this fifth sound everywhere. Even if you are in prison, you can hear a sound that surpasses all sounds in the universe.
Our biggest concern
When you manage to subdue all the noise within yourself, when you manage to achieve a "deafening silence", then you can hear a deep call within yourself. It is your heart that is trying to tell you something, but you are not yet able to hear it, because your mind is busy with noise. This noise distracted you day and night. Your head was full of thoughts, especially negative ones.
In ordinary life, most of us are in pursuit of comfort - material and emotional, and these daily worries take away all the time. We are very busy with them: how to earn enough money, how to secure food, housing and other material benefits. We also have emotional worries: whether a particular person loves us, whether our position at work is secure, and so on. All these questions make us worry almost constantly. We are concerned about finding reliable friends, but those with whom it would not be difficult. We are looking for something in life that we can rely on.
We devote ninety-nine percent of our time to such concerns, both material and spiritual. And this is understandable: we want to satisfy everyday needs, because we want to feel safe. But many of us are preoccupied with meeting our needs beyond those that are basic. Nothing threatens our physical security, we are full, we have a roof over our heads and a loving family. And yet we are in a state of constant excitement.
Your deepest concern, like most, is one that you have not even heard of yet. Each of us has worries of a higher order that have nothing to do with worries material or emotional. What do we want from our life? This is a fundamental question. We are here in the present. But why are we here? What is each of us as an individual? What do we want to do with our life? These are questions that usually do not have enough time to answer.
And these questions do not belong to the category of purely philosophical. If we are not able to answer them, then we have no right to expect that we will achieve peace, which means that we will not receive joy from life, because joy comes only with peace. Many believe that we will never find the answers. But if you start practicing mindfulness, you will hear answers within yourself, because there will be silence inside you. You will find answers to some questions and hear the deep call of your heart.
Asking the question "Who am I?" and with some time and focus, you will find amazing answers to it. You will see that you are an extension of your ancestors. They and your parents are present in every cell of your body. You are inseparable from them. If you remove your ancestors from your "I", then practically nothing will remain of your "I".
You may know that you are made up of several elements, such as water. If you remove water from the body, then you will no longer remain. You are made up of earth. If you remove the earth element, nothing will remain of you either. You are air. Air is essential: without it you cannot survive. Therefore, if you remove the element of air from yourself, again nothing will remain of you. Finally, you have the element of fire and light in you. You know you are made of light. Without sunlight, nothing on Earth can grow. If you look further, it turns out that you are made up of the Sun, one of the largest stars in our galaxy. You know that the Earth, like you, is made of stars. You are the stars. On a clear night, look up at the sky and you will realize that you are the stars that shine on us in the night. Thus, you are not just that small body that you used to think of yourself.
No need to run
Mindfulness gives you the inner space and peace to look deep inside yourself and understand who you really are and what you want from your life. You no longer need to chase meaningless goals. You used to run in search of something because you thought that something was critical to your sense of peace and happiness. You forced yourself to achieve sufficient conditions in order to be happy. You thought that right now you didn’t have such conditions, so you, like most others, developed a habit of chasing one after another. “I can’t find peace for myself, I can’t stop and enjoy life in the moment, because for my happiness I need more.” But in this way you simply stifle in yourself the natural joy of life that your birth has provided you. Life is full of wonders, including wonderful sounds. If you can exist, if you can be free, then you can be happy here and now. You have nothing more to chase.
The practice of mindfulness is very simple. You stop, you breathe, and you still your mind. You return to yourself and enjoy the fact that every moment you are here.
All the joys of life are already there. They are calling to you. If you are able to hear them, then stop the race. You, like all of us, need silence. Stop the noise in your head to enjoy the truly magical sounds of life that you need to listen to. Then you will live your real and deep life.
Tit Nath Khan
Silence. Calm in a world full of noise
Thich Nhat Hanh
The Power of Quiet in a World Full of Noise
Published with permission from HarperCollins Publishers and Andrew Nurnberg Literary Agency
Legal support for the publishing house is provided by Vegas Lex law firm.
© Thich Nhat Hanh, 2015. Published by arrangement with HarperOne, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers
© Translation, edition in Russian, design. LLC "Mann, Ivanov and Ferber", 2016
* * *This book is well complemented by:
How to find harmony in our crazy world
Mark Williams, Danny Penman
Scientific view of meditation
Daniel Siegel
Conscious meditation
A Practical Guide to Pain Relief and Stress Reduction
Vidyamala Burch, Danny Penman
Introduction
How much time we spend on the pursuit of happiness, not noticing that the world around us is full of miracles. Living and walking on earth is a miracle in itself. And yet most of us are in a hurry in our search, as if there could be a more beautiful place. Beauty calls to us every day, but we hear it very rarely.
In order for us to hear beauty and respond to its call, silence is necessary. If we do not feel silence within ourselves, and our mind and body are full of noise, then we are not able to hear the voice of beauty.
In our head, the same radio station called “Endless Reflections” plays all the time. Our minds are full of noise, so we don't hear the call of life, the call of love. Our heart calls to us, but we do not hear it either. We don't have time for this.
Practicing mindfulness calms the noise around us. Without awareness, we are distracted by all sorts of things. Sometimes regret and suffering for the past. We recall events and sensations in our memory only to relive the pain we once experienced again and again. We so easily get caught up in our past.
We are also distracted by our future. A person who worries about the future and is afraid of it falls into the same deep trap as a person shackled by the past. Anxiety, fears and uncertainty about the future do not allow us to hear the call of happiness. Therefore, the future becomes like a dungeon.
Even if we try to be in the present, many of us get distracted and feel empty, like there is a vacuum inside of us. At the same time, we long for and wait for something to come that will make our lives more interesting. We are pinning our hopes on something that will change our existence, which at the moment we regard as painful: nothing special around.
Mindfulness is often spoken of as a bell that tells us to put everything aside and listen carefully. Sometimes we use the sound of a real bell or some other sign to help us remember that we should not be distracted by the noise that exists around and within us. When we hear the sound of a bell, we freeze. We are mindful of our every inhalation and exhalation, providing a place for silence. We tell ourselves, “When I breathe in, I am aware that I am breathing in.” By consciously inhaling and exhaling, and focusing only on the breath, we quiet any noise within us: voices that speak of the past, the future, or our unbridled desires for something unknown.
In just two or three seconds of conscious breathing, we wake up and realize that we are living, that we are breathing. We are here. We exist. The noise inside us disappears. And a deep and expressive space is formed. We gain the ability to respond to the call of the surrounding beauty with the words: “I am here. I am free. I hear you".
What does "I'm here" mean. It means: “I exist, I am actually here. I am not lost in the past or the future, I am not lost in my thoughts, I am not lost in the noise that exists within and around me. I'm here". And in order to really be "here", you must be free from thoughts, worries, fear, passions. “I am free” is a very powerful statement because the truth is that many of us are not free. We do not have the freedom to hear, see, and simply exist.
I live in the countryside of southwest France, where I practice a type of silence called sublime silence with my students at my meditation center Plum Village. Practicing sublime silence is simple. If we speak, we speak. But if we are doing something else, such as eating, walking, or working, then we are doing only those actions. We don't do them at the same time as talking. We do them in joyful sublime silence. Thus we are freed to hear the deepest calls of our heart.
One of the recent days, many of the inhabitants of our center, both monks and students, were eating outdoors, sitting on the grass. Each took his own food and joined the group of those seated. We are arranged in concentric circles, one smaller circle inside a larger circle, and so on. We didn't say anything.
I sat on the grass first. Sit down and engage in conscious breathing in order to achieve silence within yourself. I listened to the birds singing, the sounds of the wind and enjoyed the beauty of spring. I did not wait for others to come and sit next to me in order to start eating. I just sat and enjoyed the environment. Other people took food, came up to me and sat down on the ground.
Silence reigned. But I felt that this silence is not as deep as it could be. Maybe it was because people were distracted to take food, move around with their plates, and then sit down. I silently watched.
I had a small bell, and when everyone sat down on the grass, I rang it. We just spent a week practicing mindful breathing, which was initiated by the sound of a bell. So now everyone heard him well. With the first sound of the bell calling for awareness, there was silence. But now she was different. It was a real silence, because each of us stopped even thinking. We focused completely on inhaling when we inhaled, and on exhaling when we exhaled. We all breathed together, and our general silence created a powerful energy field around. Such silence can be called "deafening" because it is very expressive. With such silence, the voices of birds and the sounds of the wind are heard much more clearly. Before that, I heard both birds and the wind, but they sounded different, because I had not yet reached such a deep silence.
The practice of achieving silence, which helps to get rid of all internal noise, is quite simple. By doing the appropriate exercises, everyone is able to master it. In a state of "sublime silence" you can walk, sit, enjoy food. In this state, you will be free enough to appreciate all the wonder of life. In such silence, healing itself, both mental and physical, becomes available to you. You will be able to be, to be here and now. Because you will be truly free: free from the regrets and suffering associated with the past; free from fears and feelings of uncertainty associated with the future; free from all mental nonsense. To achieve this feeling of silence alone is good, but to achieve it collectively means to receive a particularly healing and energetically powerful effect.
Sound without sound
Silence is often described as the absence of sound. However, silence itself is a powerful sound. I recall that although the winter of 2014/15 was not very cold in France, it was freezing in North America. The temperature at times dropped below twenty degrees Celsius, and blizzards constantly sank. I saw pictures of Niagara Falls: the water couldn't fall, it froze on the fly. I was very impressed with this picture. The cascade of water stopped - along with the sound.
About forty years ago I was in Thailand, in Chiang Mai, in a community of young people. I lived in a hut by a rocky stream. The sound of falling water could be heard around the clock. I enjoyed doing breathing exercises, doing my laundry, and even taking a short afternoon nap on the rocks around the stream. Wherever I was, I heard the sound of falling water. Day and night I heard the same sound. I looked at the bushes and trees around me and thought: “From their very birth, these plants hear this sound. And if we assume that it suddenly breaks off and for the first time they hear the “sound of no sound”, that is, silence? Just imagine it if you can. The water suddenly stops running, and the sound of falling water that the surrounding plants have heard all their lives, day and night, no longer exists. Think of how surprised these plants will be when they first hear "the sound of no sound."
Five real sounds
Bodhisattva is a Buddhist term for a being who has compassion for people and is called upon to alleviate their suffering. In Buddhism, a bodhisattva named Avalokiteshvara, or the Bodhisattva of Listening and All-Seeing, is often mentioned. The very name Avalokiteshvara means a being who deeply listens to all the sounds of the world.
According to Buddhist tradition, Avalokiteshvara is able to capture all the sounds that exist on earth. He can also make five different sounds that heal the world. If you find silence within yourself, you will also hear these five sounds.
The first of these is the Miraculous Sound, the sound of the miracle of life calling to you. This is the sound of birds singing, the sound of falling rain, and so on.
God is sound. Sound is the creator of the universe. IN...
Silence. Calm in a world full of noise Tit Khan
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Title: Silence. Calm in a world full of noise
About the book Silence. Peace of mind in a world full of noise" Tit Khan
In his new book, Tit Nhat Khan, the famed Zen master, shows you how to stay calm despite the constant noise around you. How to be calm even in the most turbulent places. Thanks to breathing exercises and mindfulness techniques, you will be able to live in the present, enjoy the beauty and harmony of the world around you, you will be able to get to know yourself better and understand what you really want in life.
Published in Russian for the first time.
On our site about books site you can download and read for free online book Tit Khan Silence. Peace of mind in a world full of noise” in epub, fb2, txt, rtf formats. The book will give you a lot of pleasant moments and a real pleasure to read. Buy full version you can have our partner. Also, here you will find the latest news from the literary world, learn the biography of your favorite authors. For beginner writers there is a separate section with useful tips and recommendations, interesting articles, thanks to which you yourself can try your hand at writing.
Quotes from the book "Silence. Peace of mind in a world full of noise" Tit Khan
If you want to make a difference at work or in relationships, but talking doesn't work, think about the power of silent action.
Tit Nath Khan
Silence. Calm in a world full of noise
Thich Nhat Hanh
The Power of Quiet in a World Full of Noise
Published with permission from HarperCollins Publishers and Andrew Nurnberg Literary Agency
Legal support for the publishing house is provided by Vegas Lex law firm.
© Thich Nhat Hanh, 2015. Published by arrangement with HarperOne, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers
© Translation, edition in Russian, design. LLC "Mann, Ivanov and Ferber", 2016
* * *This book is well complemented by:
mindfulness
How to find harmony in our crazy world
Mark Williams, Danny Penman
Attentive brain
Scientific view of meditation
Daniel Siegel
Conscious meditation
A Practical Guide to Pain Relief and Stress Reduction
Vidyamala Burch, Danny Penman
Introduction
How much time we spend on the pursuit of happiness, not noticing that the world around us is full of miracles. Living and walking on earth is a miracle in itself. And yet most of us are in a hurry in our search, as if there could be a more beautiful place. Beauty calls to us every day, but we hear it very rarely.
In order for us to hear beauty and respond to its call, silence is necessary. If we do not feel silence within ourselves, and our mind and body are full of noise, then we are not able to hear the voice of beauty.
In our head, the same radio station called “Endless Reflections” plays all the time. Our minds are full of noise, so we don't hear the call of life, the call of love. Our heart calls to us, but we do not hear it either. We don't have time for this.
Practicing mindfulness calms the noise around us. Without awareness, we are distracted by all sorts of things. Sometimes regret and suffering for the past. We recall events and sensations in our memory only to relive the pain we once experienced again and again. We so easily get caught up in our past.
We are also distracted by our future. A person who worries about the future and is afraid of it falls into the same deep trap as a person shackled by the past. Anxiety, fears and uncertainty about the future do not allow us to hear the call of happiness. Therefore, the future becomes like a dungeon.
Even if we try to be in the present, many of us get distracted and feel empty, like there is a vacuum inside of us. At the same time, we long for and wait for something to come that will make our lives more interesting. We are pinning our hopes on something that will change our existence, which at the moment we regard as painful: nothing special around.
Mindfulness is often spoken of as a bell that tells us to put everything aside and listen carefully. Sometimes we use the sound of a real bell or some other sign to help us remember that we should not be distracted by the noise that exists around and within us. When we hear the sound of a bell, we freeze. We are mindful of our every inhalation and exhalation, providing a place for silence. We tell ourselves, “When I breathe in, I am aware that I am breathing in.” By consciously inhaling and exhaling, and focusing only on the breath, we quiet any noise within us: voices that speak of the past, the future, or our unbridled desires for something unknown.
In just two or three seconds of conscious breathing, we wake up and realize that we are living, that we are breathing. We are here. We exist. The noise inside us disappears. And a deep and expressive space is formed. We gain the ability to respond to the call of the surrounding beauty with the words: “I am here. I am free. I hear you".
What does "I'm here" mean. It means: “I exist, I am actually here. I am not lost in the past or the future, I am not lost in my thoughts, I am not lost in the noise that exists within and around me. I'm here". And in order to really be "here", you must be free from thoughts, worries, fear, passions. “I am free” is a very powerful statement because the truth is that many of us are not free. We do not have the freedom to hear, see, and simply exist.
I live in the countryside of southwest France, where I practice a type of silence called sublime silence with my students at my meditation center Plum Village. Practicing sublime silence is simple. If we speak, we speak. But if we are doing something else, such as eating, walking, or working, then we are doing only those actions. We don't do them at the same time as talking. We do them in joyful sublime silence. Thus we are freed to hear the deepest calls of our heart.
One of the recent days, many of the inhabitants of our center, both monks and students, were eating outdoors, sitting on the grass. Each took his own food and joined the group of those seated. We are arranged in concentric circles, one smaller circle inside a larger circle, and so on. We didn't say anything.
I sat on the grass first. Sit down and engage in conscious breathing in order to achieve silence within yourself. I listened to the birds singing, the sounds of the wind and enjoyed the beauty of spring. I did not wait for others to come and sit next to me in order to start eating. I just sat and enjoyed the environment. Other people took food, came up to me and sat down on the ground.
Silence reigned. But I felt that this silence is not as deep as it could be. Maybe it was because people were distracted to take food, move around with their plates, and then sit down. I silently watched.
I had a small bell, and when everyone sat down on the grass, I rang it. We just spent a week practicing mindful breathing, which was initiated by the sound of a bell. So now everyone heard him well. With the first sound of the bell calling for awareness, there was silence. But now she was different. It was a real silence, because each of us stopped even thinking. We focused completely on inhaling when we inhaled, and on exhaling when we exhaled. We all breathed together, and our general silence created a powerful energy field around. Such silence can be called "deafening" because it is very expressive. With such silence, the voices of birds and the sounds of the wind are heard much more clearly. Before that, I heard both birds and the wind, but they sounded different, because I had not yet reached such a deep silence.
The practice of achieving silence, which helps to get rid of all internal noise, is quite simple. By doing the appropriate exercises, everyone is able to master it. In a state of "sublime silence" you can walk, sit, enjoy food. In this state, you will be free enough to appreciate all the wonder of life. In such silence, healing itself, both mental and physical, becomes available to you. You will be able to be, to be here and now. Because you will be truly free: free from the regrets and suffering associated with the past; free from fears and feelings of uncertainty associated with the future; free from all mental nonsense. To achieve this feeling of silence alone is good, but to achieve it collectively means to receive a particularly healing and energetically powerful effect.
Sound without sound
Silence is often described as the absence of sound. However, silence itself is a powerful sound. I recall that although the winter of 2014/15 was not very cold in France, it was freezing in North America. The temperature at times dropped below twenty degrees Celsius, and blizzards constantly sank. I saw pictures of Niagara Falls: the water couldn't fall, it froze on the fly. I was very impressed with this picture. The cascade of water stopped - along with the sound.
About forty years ago I was in Thailand, in Chiang Mai, in a community of young people. I lived in a hut by a rocky stream. The sound of falling water could be heard around the clock. I enjoyed doing breathing exercises, doing my laundry, and even taking a short afternoon nap on the rocks around the stream. Wherever I was, I heard the sound of falling water. Day and night I heard the same sound. I looked at the bushes and trees around me and thought: “From their very birth, these plants hear this sound. And if we assume that it suddenly breaks off and for the first time they hear the “sound of no sound”, that is, silence? Just imagine it if you can. The water suddenly stops running, and the sound of falling water that the surrounding plants have heard all their lives, day and night, no longer exists. Think of how surprised these plants will be when they first hear "the sound of no sound."
