PRACTISE SILENCE EVERY DAY

We live in a noisy world, a noisome world. All the noises around us create stress. Even as particles of dust cling to our clothes, even so particles of noise cling to our minds, our hearts, nay our very souls.
When our clothes are soiled, we wash them with soap and water. How do we clean our souls, which are polluted by the noise around us? We must wash them in the waters of silence - the flowing river of silence. We need to take dips in the river again and again.

Dr. Deborah Bright is regarded as an authority on stress; and her recommendation to overcome stress is what she calls PQT. PQT is Personal Quiet Time. Dr. Bright recommends two sessions of PQT - 20 minutes in the morning, 20 minutes in the evening - everyday. If you have these two sessions regularly, tension and stress cannot touch you.

A philosopher once asked a king, “Who do you think is the happiest being in the world?"
“God,” replied the king, and he added, “The happiest of men is he who is closest to God."

“How may we get close to God?" he was asked.

“Through the practice of silence!" he was asked.

Significant are the words of the Upanishad: “The mind alone is the cause of man's bondage; the mind is also, the instrument of man's liberation."

It is silence which can still the mind, so that the mind is calm and clear as the surface of the lake on a windless day. In silence, the mind will become a source of indescribable joy and peace - and tension and stress will vanish, as dew before the rising sun.
To sit in silence, you must learn to be still. “The more a man does," says an English mystic, “the more he is and exists. And the more he is exists, the less of god is and exists within him."

Let me sit in silence, so that the God within me awakens. Let me sit still, as a silent spectator viewing the shifting scenes of a fickle mind. Let me but sit, as I sat long ago, in a theatre watching a play. The actors appeared on the stage, played their respective roles and disappeared. I kept looking on! So too, let me keep looking at the thoughts that come and go - rushing out of the unknown depths of my mind. They are not mine. I have nothing to do with them. They come: let them come. They will soon pass out, leaving the chamber of my mind calmer, cleaner and brighter.

Sitting in silence, you can pray. You can meditate upon the Lord. You can engage yourself in a loving and intimate conversation with God. God is not from you afar. He is wherever we are. He is here. He is now. Anchor your hopes and aspirations in His safe harbor. Where He is - there is absolute Peace.