Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Echoes of Silence

Why are my thoughts so important to me? Why am I so obsessed with thinking that I can't even allow myself to sit down and read a book? Why does my mind need constant stimulation?

Am I afraid of boredom? Silence?

If there was silence, what would that mean?

Is the sound of silence in a mind really so much like death?

In death, is there even silence? If there is not noise or silence in death, what is there?

23 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nice thoughts. Well, to the extents that thoughts can be nice.

I hope that you find a way to let it go. Everything will be much better when you do.


All problems come from mind.

Jim said...

The world full, fills our heads,
Drains our hearts, leaves us dead.
A world filled with temporal things,
Emptying hearts and carrying strings.

Dangling by days and too, by nights,
Ropes of coils and voids of delight.
Minds of wonders, dull and dim,
Nothing of beauty, enters in.

What to do but find the cure,
Where to look, find something pure?
Everything daily truly spiritual is,
But the KEY to the locks, where it 'tis?

Not to be pushy and crowd the door,
Simply to tell again, the source once more.
Letters written in puzzles so fine,
Brings the worlds stuff truly in line.

I said yes and you said no,
Patience the virtue, time to know?
Exercise mind and fingers of brain,
Walks on clouds and loves the rain.

Let me know, if time arrives,
Let me hear, curiosity thrives.
Plenty you'll find in wondrous rhyme,
Bulging muscles of thought sublime.

Love to you and all that's yours,
Drop a line, the path's secure.
No need to feel, pressures' paw,
Relax your Being, stop feeling raw.

Sophia, Love as always, Jim.

Anonymous said...

http://www.lyricsfreak.com/s/simon+and+garfunkel/the+sound+of+silence_20124712.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sound_of_Silence

Does "life" begin at conception?

Does "life" begin when hearing begins in utero?

If a person is deaf, are they not alive?

People being driven mad by tinitus used to ask for surgery to deafen them so the tinitus would stop. They had no relief from the tinitus despite their sacrifice. Indeed, with no real sound to distract them from the tinitus their situation worsened.

Sound is only one of the senses many living creatures experience. Plants are said to thrive better if spoken to kindly.

I wonder why that doesn't always work for humans. What do plants know that we don't?

"Don't take life so serious, son, it ain't nohow permanent." (Proper credit goes to my favorite comic strip of all time, Pogo.)

Happily_anonymous

Sophia said...

Hi Mossy,

I'm always having these thoughts. I even have thoughts that tell me I should stop having thoughts. I think of thoughts as a favorite passtime. They're like a hobby because they keep me entertained. Well, what's important is that they keep me occupied. Without them, how long would the day be?

The problem with thoughts, is that I can't seem to control them enough to keep the bad ones from floating across the screen. If I could separate them and then filter them, it would be a different story.

Never mind. Really! Nevermind! :)

Sophia said...

Jim,

She longs and she pines
With him she would dine
If only she could translate
The foreign language he speaks

If there were a beginning
An easy place to start
She would say yes to his yes
And together they'd make art

Spiritual art they'd make
For heaven's sake!
Two spiritual lovers entertwining
To make the baby God

But there is no secret potion
No drink from bubbling cauldron
To make her open her eyes
To immediately see what he sees

There is no magic spell
No mathemagic even
To turn her from unaware to awake
Thus Sophia spake!
---

P.S. Love to you, too, Jim. One of the loves of my life. :)

Sophia said...

I'll answer more comments after I get home from work. My lunch just ended. :(

Jim said...

Sophia, my fine friend, fine indeed, I don't think you need what I offer, you already succeed, but only did I offer for exercise and fun, so call me if ever, I love you a ton, lol!

Super response Sophia, you are fine indeed!

Unknown said...

Silence is the language of God, and the Devil has all the best tunes. You pays your money and takes your choice. Mossy "All problems come from mind." Everything comes from and returns to mind. Today I have a temperature and a terrible cold, and I'm sitting listening to a beautiful French chanson. Do I have a problem? No, I have a cold but my mind is happy. We can use our vision to see and feel the good and sublime.

V said...

Well, at least you are trying to think for yourself.
What will make your really happy?

Kathy Trejo said...

Thoughts come and go like clouds in a windy sky.

Sophia said...

Happily_anonymous,

"The Sound of Silence" is a magical song that holds meaning for me, like standing alone in a crowd full of people, talking but no one understanding. Yet the truth is that here in blogland people really do seem to listen and understand. And people speak and their words are heard, people listen to the others speaking, so there is not much silence here in blogland. Not like in the humdrum work day or usual crowd, everyone going about like programmed robots without a note of self.

In my world, life began at my conception. I do not know of life before then. (By the way, I was an accident!!)

Deaf people are very much alive, and probably have a more keen sense of sight, touch, smell or taste than we who can hear. Can they see more? We can't know. Just like I can't know that the color orange I see is the same orange that you see.

Deaf people can feel sound, though. As vibrations. I was emptying out one of the plastic garbage cans today, just a small can, and I was singing a tune. As my voice was caught inside it, the entire can vibrated.

It reminded me of the koan that asks about the tree falling in the forest but having no one around to hear it. Does it make a sound? I'd say so - the plants, they can feel the vibrations. Sound is vibration.

Maybe plants like the vibrations they get from our voices. Maybe the vibrations stimulate them. I've talked to a plant before. And I wasn't ashamed, either! :)

These are just some thoughts that just ran through my head. I captured them here in text. There were of course many more thoughts that I couldn't catch, so off they flew into the wild blue of mind void.

Sophia said...

Jim, Love, I hope my poem didn't offend you. I was only trying to be clever. Of course I need what you offer, and of course if I could rise to your level of intellect I might have a chance in learning spiritual matters!

:)

Sophia said...

Cookiemouse,

Sometimes silence is almost deafening. Funny, that! But maybe that is how God gets our attention. In a world full of noise, silence is bound to catch our attention.

I hope you get feeling better soon. I'm still working on getting over a flu. A few days ago I just couldn't get over the fact that I was happy at the same time I was sick. It just didn't feel right! But I enjoyed the feeling anyway. :)

Sophia said...

Siegfried,

Yes, sometimes I think for myself. But I love thoughts so much that I want other people's thoughts, too. I don't know why because there are plenty of my own thoughts to go around! I just think that other people's thoughts make me feel less alone. Yes, that's it.

What will make me happy? To have only happy thoughts, of course! :)

Sophia said...

Kathy,

You couldn't have spoken words more true.

I wonder about thoughts. Clouds have shapes, even though they're always changing. If we could catch a thought, what would it look like? It would probably melt away before we even have a chance to examine it. As is often the case anyway. So much for catching thoughts.

Anonymous said...

Too many muppets.

Bob said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

I am learning to be wary of my thoughts.

In meditation I find that there is something very precious beyond these thoughts.

Sophia said...

Zenmonk,

I always did like Kermit. :)

Think about it, though, just how many muppets are running around in your life?

Sophia said...

Rob,

What would you say you find behind your thoughts? Serenity? Peace? Something else?

Anonymous said...

Something beyond my concepts!

Anonymous said...

I seem to be caught in a circular argument here!

Anyway it sure feels good!

Anonymous said...

Good catch Rob. :)