The starting point of the healing power of silence is our thoughts. Thoughts are extremely powerful; indeed, since we speak and act according to the quality of our thoughts, they create the world around us. Generally, each of us has about thirty-six thousand thoughts per day. Some days there are many more — as the day gets more and more tense, there might be thirty-six thousand thoughts an hour. How fast the mind works! It is like a machine. But we have forgotten that we are in charge of this machine; we can determine the speed with which it moves and the direction it takes.
Yes, we can decide in which direction the thoughts go, and we can determine the quality and speed of those thoughts too. Mostly, we are not aware of this and so the machine is taken over by external influences. We see or hear something or someone, and we react, forgetting that we have independence and choice. No matter what is going on outside, we can choose our thoughts, and the more we understand and practise this understanding, the easier it becomes to remain calm, understand what we need to do, and act accordingly.
This thought-control process begins with silence. When you practise silence, you can transform yourself from the ‘headless chicken’ constantly reacting inappropriately, to someone who is master of his or her thoughts. This does not take months to achieve — it can happen in the space of a day! When you master your thoughts, you can start to create beautiful, powerful and pure thoughts, and you can also create the space between those thoughts that allows you to tap into the healing power of your own inner silence.
The key to this is to ‘quarantine’ your mind with silence for twenty minutes every morning and evening. Each morning, before beginning your day, stop and become silent – fill your mind with quietness and peace, with a loving attitude. During the day this quietness and peace will transform into clarity and attentiveness. As you travel through your day, watch how your mind loses this quietness and becomes full of haste, reacting with twists, jumps and spins at any moment in any place and with anyone. When you notice your mind rebelling in this way, allow yourself to stop and replenish your quietness and peace. Do this as often as you wish or need. It may take just a second of silence for you to regain your equanimity, or it may take a minute or two. By returning to quietness and remembering your original peace, you will quickly regain your clarity and attentiveness.
The founder of the Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University, Prajapita Brahma, found this topic of the inner argument between the self and the mind absorbing. He kept a journal recounting his progress, and it reads like a manifesto for all of us setting out to live quieter and less stressed lives. One of the extracts reads…
“So, Mind, your revolutionary days are over. And, furthermore, every hour, for just a minute, I’ll check on what you are doing and where you are going”
Prajapita Brahma
The late Anthony Strano was an author and Rajyoga teacher with the Brahma Kumaris.