Question

I have experienced several different types of meditation, but I do not know how to meditate in the silence. Any suggestions?

Answer

Thank you for submitting this question. It is a question many have, particularly because so many teachings suggest "thought-taking" and "visualizing" and "intention" during meditation.

There is ONLY One; Oneness. What the mind experiences as a multitude of separateness, people, things, activities, processes, distances, and vehicles "from" or "through" which good "comes", is an illusion of the five senses.

There is ONLY One Allness. You are That. Your entire world of body, other bodies, things - such as home, car, money, CDs, furniture, paintings, supermarkets, hills, valleys, glades, oceans and so on - experiences and even thoughts ARE, ACTUALLY ALL THE ONE ONENESS, ALL INDIVISIBLE ONE PURE FULFILLMENT "HAPPENING" OMNIPRESENTLY, yet the mind sees, hears, tastes, touches, smells and thinks in divided, separate, material terms.

Can you imagine divided omnipresence? It is ludicrous! Can you imagine a "point" in omnipresence that is missing some intelligence, all-knowingness, when omnipresence is indivisible, and omnipresence IS the All-Knowing Mind Itself, Omniscience?

Can you imagine the One Omnipresence - the WHOLE of Infinity BEING all here at every point in space at the same time... ALL HERE without one grain of anything at all missing - which is ALSO the One, Only Omniscience, missing some power somewhere within Its Allness, when the very Oneness All Is, is Omnipotence Itself?

If ANYTHING AT ALL were capable of being "missing", Omniscience would not be omniscience because to have something "missing" or "discordant" or "ill" or "difficult" would not be very intelligent! How can Omniscience Itself - the All-Intelligence of the universe - be unintelligent, therefore incomplete in even one tiniest of ways or forms, somewhere within Its All-Infinity of Intelligent Allness?

The next thing to realize is that Spirit, Oneness, fills all space... Spirit is infinite, everything everywhere. Spirit is THE Infinite Itself, THE everything everywhere Itself.

Therefore, there is no Spirit AND. There is no Spirit AND "you", no Spirit AND body, no Spirit AND money, no Spirit AND home, car, dog, supermarket, fruit tree, wine, garden, ocean.

There is no Spirit AND thought... no Spirit AND the "thinking" senses of seeing, hearing, tasting, touching or smelling.

There is no Spirit AND activity, project, business or achievement. There is NOTHING BUT SPIRIT filling ALL space, BEING ALL "things" sensed, or "experienced by" the five senses.

Spirit fills all space within you, because there is NOTHING but Spirit BEING every "thing" and every "being" and every "place".

Next, realize the great Truth that THERE IS NO UNMANIFESTED, UNFORMED SPIRIT. Spirit is fully formed, fully manifested at every point in the universe at the same time. The WHOLE is right here where you are, BEING YOU AND YOUR ENTIRE WORLD, fully, effortlessly, and completely - to every last detail and fragment - COMPLETE YOU.

Ah, but at this moment you don't "see" the Allness You are. Why? Because you are identifying with the five material senses instead of with the Oneness You are. And what is that Oneness? Invisible Spirit You... the Infinite Invisible (to the senses) You... the limitless, fully-formed, fully-manifested, fully HERE You.

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Right at this very point is where the ENTIRE "trouble" with life's experience is found, and solved.

No matter what you are experiencing as a lack of fulfillment - whether it be something to do with health, wealth, love, companionship, success, achievement, attainment, purpose, happiness, freedom, adventure, excitement, pleasure or peace - the ENTIRE "experience" of lack is completely dissolved and solved by switching the false sense of material identity to the Truthful awareness of spiritual identity, spiritual Being... the One, Infinite, Invisible Allness that You Truly are, always, here and now.

Very simply: You are Spirit, Whole, Complete, blissfully fulfilled Being in every way, and with every "thing" unto infinity, eternally. The Infinite Perfection You are HAS NOT ONE THING TO DO WITH THE MIND. Nothing. Not one thing the mind can ever think, know, own, see, hear, taste, touch or smell HAS ANYTHING AT ALL TO DO WITH THE INFINITE ALLNESS YOU ARE, AND HAVE.

Yet - and here's the miracle - as you rest in the blissful Silence of Being, without any "thought-taking", any "desire", any "knowing" AT ALL, the Allness You are, and have, "shines through" the foggy, "dark" mind to reveal beaty, bounty, life and success AS everything everywhere in body, mind, affairs and world.

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Spirit - You, and Your entire World - is Silence. Silence IS the All of all. Silence IS what the mind sees AS every person, thing, activity, place and situation, but the mind experiences the blissful Allness so "darkly", or "foggily" that it hardly sees a thing! Then it calls its "seeing in the dense dark, or thick fog" lack, limitation, illness, disease, injustice, poverty, unhappiness, inability, lack of knowing, failure.

THERE IS NO SUCH THING!!! Spirit is All perfection, here and now, without limit, without delay!!! The complete and utterly perfect kingdom that is You is 100 PERCENT FINISHED, overflowing, ecstatic, fulfilled.

You, It, is not missing even the slightest wisp of wind, the tiniest grain of sand, the most "insignificant" thought or pleasure or thing or achievement or love, life, companionship, or purpose.

On the contrary, You, It, is so infinitely, limitlessly complete, right here where you are, AS You, this minute, that when you gain even a sniff of It, even the tiniest, tiniest glimpse of It, the material, physical "you" you thought you are will melt in indescribable pleasure, peace, relaxedness,

Now tell me: what has a "you" or "me" got left to do, from the very moment we discover this great Truth, other than REST IN THE SILENT PRESENCE OF ALLNESS, the FINISHED, BLISSFUL KINGDOM THAT SPIRIT IS, THEREFORE WHAT WE ARE, HERE, NOW, ALWAYS?

How do we achieve this RESTING in the Silent Self of Allness, including All "things"... "resting" meaning meditating, or being in the Silence?

Sit, or lie (whichever is more natural-feeling to you), and gently give up "thinking" things, "visualizing" for things or circumstances or conditions, trying to "know" Truth thereby "manifesting it" in your experience. Thinking is the entire problem in the first place. No-thinking is the solution... the solution that reveals the finished kingdom of You right in the very place, or places, that seemed to be lacking or limited or discordant to the mind.

If thoughts will not "stop" at the moment just ignore them as you would ignore a movie playing on the cinema screen. The "outer" world has no power at all... remember, all power is Spirit, omnipotence Itself. There is no other power, no other activity, no other presence. Everything the mind sees and experiences is simply the highly limited, fractional "outer picture" of the One omnipresent Allness that is your ACTUAL body and world. Just learn to ignore the pictures.

Gently bring your attention to the Spirit - Awareness - You are. The actual awareness you are aware WITH is the Spirit You are; THAT is what you bring your attention TO. (The words Spirit, Awareness, Consciousness, Aliveness are all just synonyms for the One Invisible, Incorporeal Self You, and All, Is.)

As you simply do nothing but REST SILENTLY (no thoughts, no knowing, no desire) IN the Infinite Spirit - Awareness - LETTING IT - without one ounce of effort by "you" (your mind) - wash over you, permeate you, saturate you, "fill" you and your entire world (for ALL is One; You ARE your entire world; the "inner" and the "outer" are One and the same, yet the mind sees "them" as different, separate.. but the mind senses are illusion), Spirit has the effect of "shining through" the darkness of mind, or "burning off" the fogginess of mind that obscures the wholeness, the bounty, the beauty that is all-present, already fully manifested and formed, like the morning sun burns off the fog that obscures the wholeness of the ocean, the boats, the people and the coastal villages and towns.

Be the Silence of Awareness... and LET. Be Silent and LET... LET... LET. Sit in your withinness, be patient, and WAIT and wait and wait until you FEEL some kind of HAPPENING welling up, or glowing, or flowing, or just becoming present as an actual FEELING within.

That FEELING of an actual HAPPENING within typically "comes" as a sense of peace, or sense of release from the "outer problem" for this moment of silence, or a sense of joy or warmth or heat or light or bliss or euphoria. Sometimes It "comes" as the awareness of a truth popping into your mind, a realization of some sort, a clarity of some kind that makes you jump up and say, "Ah! THAT is what that means! Wow!!"

It may "come" as a very subtle, very gentle, almost miss-able, sense of REST... just a nice, "safe" feeling of being "away" from "the world" for these few moments of silence. That is It too!

However It is experienced, the moment you HAVE experienced It... but not before... the "darkness" or "fog" of the appearing "problem" IS SOLVED. Your demonstration is complete, it is done, finished.

Now... AS LONG AS YOU KEEP MIND ON THE ALL-PRESENT SPIRITUAL ALLNESS, EVERYWHERE PRESENT, YOU WILL SEE YOUR WHOLENESS, YOUR NEED FULFILLED, QUICKLY IN THE "OUTER". If you allow your mind to become entangled again in the appearing "outer" scene, it has the effect of delaying the good you have just witnessed and tangibly experienced within.

So... very important... KEEP awareness, attention, ON Spirit, not on the "outer" scene... even if that scene is heavily demanding or urgent to mind-awareness.

That's it. There is NOTHING more, or further, for you to do in order to reveal absolute, limitless Wholeness of All - which INCLUDES "this world" right where you are, because the "inner" and "outer" are One, not two... any more than you have anything at all to "do" about LETTING the sun burn off the morning fog to reveal the wholeness of the ocean and land ALREADY FULLY PRESENT.

The wholeness of You and your entire world and affairs IS ALREADY PRESENT! The entire "problem" is only "darkness" or "fog" that is the mind. The entire solution is to BE Silence, and LET the One Presence - Spirit - reveal the fullness of Itself, the ONLY ACTUAL PRESENCE, right in front of you, all around you, AS You.

For more understanding and meditation method see:

Being Aware of Awareness Itself is The Key
Light On An Extraordinary Truth
The Secret of Demonstration Is To Lift Above The Visible