Not saying anything anymore

Filed under Notes on 27. March 2007 »

I’m now going to present you with what will probably be perceived as a rather unusual pointer, a silly little meditation technique that sounds too simple to be effective. But as you know, a pointer doesn’t necessarily have to make sense to the thinking mind; it’s meant to trigger a deeper sense of knowing than rational thought can ever provide you with.

This pointer, or meditation technique, is to focus with vigilance on not saying anything, focusing intently on not speaking at all. Even going so far as to contemplate never uttering a single word ever again. Acting as if you were suddenly unable to speak.

The point of this exercise is not to stop speaking forever, but to entertain the possibility as a means of connecting to stillness. What happens when you do this is that the reactive entity in you, the ego, is made redundant in one of its main areas of function. In most people, most of the time, the act of speaking is heavily influenced by patterns of conditioned reaction, connected to the stream of compulsive thought that is so characteristic of the normal human state of consciousness.

When you focus on not speaking, you may even notice that your tongue and facial muscles suddenly become more relaxed. There is also a sense of stillness and silence, because the mind automatically quiets down and lets down its defenses. A large part of our conditioned thinking is verbal and subvocalized, in that we talk to ourselves using words and may even whisper or talk out loud without noticing. Because of this connection between mental noise and the act of speaking, contemplating the cessation of speaking is a powerful way of cutting off the reactive patterns of thinking.

So however silly it may sound, focusing intently on not saying anything can be a very practical meditation tool, and a useful pointer to stillness in the midst of everyday life.