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Cato
Germany
229 Posts |
 Posted - May 05 2024 : 2:26:33 PM
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Hi everybody,
til today, I do not know for sure - or from experience - what stillness really is. During meditation and for a few minutes afterwards, there is this state that could be what AYP calls stillness. It is a certain condition, it has some kind of texture. It brings calmness. It can be in the foreground and in the background. It has a noise and can be accompanied by thoughts. It is not a bit world-shaking, but it is there. And for this guy, it is too fleeting. |
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SeySorciere
Seychelles
1537 Posts |
Posted - May 06 2024 : 06:16:23 AM
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Sey  |
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interpaul
USA
529 Posts |
Posted - May 08 2024 : 02:26:20 AM
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| Cato, I too find inner silence more subtle than I originally expected. It is calm and I experience a hum in my ears which I imagine is similar to tinnitus but I associate it with the calm state that comes from deep meditation. I have not yet achieved "abiding" inner silence but notice it whenever I bring attention to it, particularly when sitting quietly reading, in nature, or when the distractions of the day have diminished. I have come to connect inner slience as an energetic state in my head, experienced between my ears, similar to the glowing/tingling sensation I feel in my hands that comes from ecstatic conductivity. Over time I've found all these phenomenon are interconnected. I do not believe the thoughts you suggest accompany it are typical and may be a sign you are not truly in silence. The inner silence by my take is about a quiet mind that is not reactive and is a state distinct from the usual monkey mind. I just thought of a few scenes in movies when an explosion happens and the hero hears a loud ringing in his ears and the soundtrack of the show becomes very quiet or distant. The imagery is hyper real and focused. That is close to how I feel in this state. In the end we each experience the path differently. We've been fortunate to have an amazing teacher in Yogani as he's described subtle states in a way that is approachable and demystified; however, the exact way inner silence and ecstatic conductivity plays out in each of us is unique. |
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Dogboy
USA
2207 Posts |
Posted - May 08 2024 : 8:40:30 PM
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| Well said. |
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Mithuna
France
8 Posts |
Posted - May 09 2024 : 6:49:35 PM
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Hi,
We are used to experiencing feelings through the filter of our thoughts with which we identify and this is what we consider to be reality, mental, emotional or physical. But inner silence does not belong to any of these categories. I think that if Yogani spends a lot of time describing to us the tools to reveal this inner state while avoiding any too precise description, it is precisely because it escapes any formal description and that each of us must discover it as an intimate experience that will become a constituent of our reality.
As far as I am concerned, as I detach myself from the thoughts that come and go before my consciousness and are done and undone like clouds pushed by the wind, I first notice an inner peace and mental clarification, an emotional well-being and a physical and energetic refocusing leading to an inner wholeness. On the mental level, by allowing thoughts (in any form that affects my consciousness), to be reabsorbed, I see new, creative thoughts appear, which open up new, very concrete and liberating perspectives where the old ones were usually reactive. Thus, in my experience, inner silence, if it first manifests itself as a rarefaction and disidentification of thoughts in their broadest sense (including our affects and perceptions), turns out to be creative, as Yogani explains in lesson 13. How many times when faced with a problem that seemed to me insoluble, disturbing or even critical, the rest of this problem in inner silence has opened a way out for me, not only through new avenues, but also through a relational or real change in its manifestation. Inner silence is transformative: imperceptibly I noticed that by regenerating our inner world, it gradually change our life like a source of clear water, if we trusted it. If by its very nature we cannot apprehend it, we can see its trace, its wake in the metamorphoses of our inner world and beyond our destiny.
More profoundly, I noticed that as I gradually let what seemed to be the constitutive certainties of my personal vision come to light and be absorbed into silence, another reality was revealed in me, a place and a time outside of space and time that was extremely real, always present as long as I let it come to me. Then the inner silence becomes both the means by which the Temple of the Self is woven and this Temple itself, the container of Reality. This is perhaps what Patanjali is referring to when he says that after stopping the fluctuations of consciousness (sutra 2), the seer remains in his own essential nature (sutra 3), defining in inspiring conciseness the method and purpose of yoga.
For me this essential nature, this abode of the Self is inner silence and constitutes both the fruit of a very real experience and an ever deeper discovery of what we really are.
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Dogboy
USA
2207 Posts |
Posted - May 10 2024 : 03:50:10 AM
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quote:
For me this essential nature, this abode of the Self is inner silence and constitutes both the fruit of a very real experience and an ever deeper discovery of what we really are.
Also well said  |
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Blanche
USA
861 Posts |
Posted - May 11 2024 : 2:00:24 PM
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Mithuna,
Thank you for sharing. This is a fine example of insight that rises spontaneously or in response to inquiry in the context of a consistent meditation practice. While meditation slowly loosens attachments and changes our relationship with the world, insights often mark a profound transformation in self-identity and world view.
Here is a great argument for the value of meditation and inquiry. |
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