Silentium

Today, 22 January, Zen Buddhist monk and teacher, Thích Nhất Hạnh passed away peacefully, at his root temple Từ Hiếu in Vietnam.

Lately, I have been re-reading his early journals, in the book Fragrant Palm Leaves: Journals 1962–1966. Here, I read a brief extract from those journals, and reflect on Thay’s life.

If you would like to join a service in memory of this great and beloved teacher, details of a series of memorial services can be found on the Plum Village website, where you will also find a beautiful guided mindfulness meditation.

You can support Silentium by being a paid subscriber; becoming a patron; making a donation. I also offer one to one and group silence coaching, spiritual direction, and courses.

Today on the podcast, I share readings and contemplations drawn from the journals of Jiddu Krishnamurti, as published in Krishnamurti’s Notebook.

In June 1961 Krishnamurti began to keep a daily record of his perceptions and states of consciousness. Apart from about fourteen days he kept up this record for seven months. He wrote clearly, in pencil, and with virtually no erasures. The first seventy-seven pages of the manuscript are written in a small notebook; from then until the end (p. 331 of the manuscript) a larger, loose-leaf book was used. The record starts abruptly and ends abruptly. Krishnamurti himself cannot say what prompted him to begin it. He had never kept such a record before, nor has he kept one since. The manuscript has received the minimum amount of editing. Krishnamurti's spelling has been corrected; a few punctuation marks have been put in for the sake of clarity; some abbreviations, such as the ampersand he invariably used, have been spelt out in full; some footnotes and a few interpolations lations in square brackets have been added. In all other respects the manuscript is presented here as it was written.

— Krishnamurti’s Notebook, on the nature of these journal entries.

Footnotes: Recorded outdoors in a forester’s ruin amidst the eucalyptus trees of Alentejo, Portugal. On Monday 17 August at 16:00 London/Lisbon time, I’ll be in conversation with Rebecca Razzall, tea person and filmmaker, on Instagram live, from this same location. Follow me on Instagram for updates.

To discover how to keep a spiritual journal of your own, join me to learn from Krishnamurti and other spiritual journalists, in the Quiet Notes journalling course.

Thank you for reading. You can support Silentium by becoming a paid subscriber here; becoming a patron; making a regular or one-off donation; becoming a student or client.

You are the One which is aware of the awareness of objects and ideas.

You are the One which is even more silent than awareness.

You are the Life which precedes the concept of life.

Your nature is Silence and it is not attainable, it always is.

— HWL Poonja (Papaji)

Today, I share readings from Papaji on our nature as silence, followed by a period of silent contemplation.

The words of Papaji are taken from This: Prose and Poetry of Dancing Emptiness, and from the introduction to Breath of the Absolute, by Mooji.

Thank you for reading. You can support Silentium by becoming a paid subscriber here; becoming a patron; making a regular or one-off donation; becoming a student or client.

Today, I share a ten minute silent sitting period, leading into a reading I share from my forthcoming poetry collection, Small Silences. All recorded here at the hermitage this morning.

hidden —in an empty fieldten thousand unborn flowers

If you’re interested in learning poetry reading and writing as a contemplative practice, I also teach a Small Silences course. If you’d like to read and hear more of my poetry, you might like to join my patrons community, who support me in the publishing of my work, along with this Silentium podcast.

before it even falls — the rain

Thank you for listening. You can support Silentium by becoming a paid subscriber here; becoming a patron; making a regular or one-off donation; becoming a student or client.

Awareness: Silence’s very own practice.

The practice of contemplation over many winters into spring often leads to a subtle but fundamental shift in prayer: from using a prayer word as a means of concentration to simple sitting in awareness. Just being. When inner silence sits in simple repose, its prayer is naked awareness. If we used a prayer word, it has not disappeared so much as opened up, something like the way a tulip opens up: what was tightly gathered in pointed focus begins to swell, expand, and open. And now this pollen-painted bowl of petals holds air and light-filled emptiness. This is awareness.

— Father Martin Laird, in A Sunlit Absence: Silence, Awareness, and Contemplation.

As regular readers and listeners will be aware, silence and awareness practice are a great passion of mine, and Fr. Martin Laird expresses both exquisitely in his writings.

In today’s podcast, I read from Fr. Laird’s book, A Sunlit Absence: Silence, Awareness, and Contemplation, leading us into ten minutes of contemplation.

Image and words: Andō.

Thank you for reading. You can support Silentium by becoming a paid subscriber here; becoming a patron; making a regular or one-off donation; becoming a student or client.

Ryan Keebaugh's “innovative and hauntingly beautiful” music has been praised for its “gorgeous canvases of sound of sacred minimalism” and has established him as a prominent composer and collaborator of his generation.

In today’s podcast, Ryan has shared the following works with us:

The Human One, for string trio.

The Suffering Servant, for Choir.

We close with a ten minute meditation drone, Drones in Solitude I, a soundscape Ryan created for me to record guided meditations over, here on the podcast. But today, I present it in its raw beauty, for you to enjoy ten minutes of silent meditation and contemplation.

To find out more about Ryan and listen to further recordings of his music, visit his website. You can also find him on Twitter and Instagram.

Thank you for reading. You can support Silentium by becoming a paid subscriber here; becoming a patron; making a regular or one-off donation; becoming a student or client.

A contemplation on nature and solitude, with a reading from the Japanese edition of Thoughts in Solitude by Thomas Merton, followed by a period of ten minutes for silent reflection.

Thank you for listening. You can support Silentium by becoming a paid subscriber here; becoming a patron; making a regular or one-off donation; becoming a student or client.

A contemplation on the stillness and silence of flowers.

I share contemplations on flower-nature, sharing from the Flower Sermon. In the Flower Sermon, the Buddha gave silent transmission to his disciple Mahākāśyapa, who became the Buddha’s Dharma-heir, and the forefather of the Zen lineage.

With readings from Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī and the Denkoroku, and a period of silence, for silent meditation, contemplation, or prayer.

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Isolation need not be a negative experience. I sit in the isolation of contemplation daily. Often, many times a day.

Let this week’s guided contemplation with silence be a friend to you as in all corners of the earth, we meet ourselves in isolation. Use it as a way to let go of your burden, of the weight of thoughts that you’re carrying. Return to it, call on it, it’s a simple way for you to return to the silence of being, to yourself, to God, to silence, to the source. Whatever name you give it, it is the underlying fabric of all things, and it is with you wherever you go, if you’re prepared to drop into silence and meet yourself there, as the silence itself.

If you’re looking for peace, return here, and you’re sure to find it.

Thank you for reading. You can support Silentium by becoming a paid subscriber here; becoming a patron; making a regular or one-off donation; becoming a student or client.

Following a break of a couple of weeks, for travel and rest, I bring you the first Silentium podcast of February. This week’s podcast is on the ultimate nature of silence, a clarification on what I refer to, when I refer to silence.

If you appreciate this podcast series, please consider supporting it by becoming a patron at patreon.com/supportando, making a donation at paypal.me/supportando, or by becoming a paid subscriber here on Substack.

Thank you for listening.

_Please note: Following a reported issue with the audio, I have reprocessed the audio and re-uploaded, please download/listen again for two channel mono audio. My apologies for the lack of quality in the original recording.