Theosophy - Silence and Sound by Hugh Shearman
Silence
and Sound
Hugh
Shearman
MYSTICS
of all religions and cultures have used much the same language in such attempts
as they have made to express their experience. Three great classes of metaphor
or symbol they have tended above all to use, the three symbols of sound, light
and form. But the ultimate Reality cannot be indicated by any description or
symbol; for any description - other than those which indicate complete absence
of limitation, words like infinite, absolute and eternal - implies a limitation
such as cannot be imagined in the nature of Ultimate Reality. Even the attribute
of being, in any sense in which we understand that word, cannot be applied to
Ultimate Reality; and so, mysteriously, it is said that the One Being to us
is Non-Being.
The three
great mystical approaches to Reality have therefore extended their symbolism
from sound, light and form to Silence, Darkness and Formlessness. These three
have respectively a relation to the Holy Trinity, representing - to some extent
at least, though not perhaps exclusively or very precisely in all cases - mysticisms
of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, or of Shiva, Vishnu and Brahma.
The
creation of the Universe is often referred to in terms of sound, the uttering
of a word or the striking of a note.
Thought
expressed in the symbolism of one such approach to Reality can be translated
largely into the terms and symbolism of the others. In the needs of the modern
age it is particularly useful to think about Silence and sound.
The
Word came forth out of the Silence.
The creation
of the Universe is often referred to in terms of sound, the uttering of a word
or the striking of a note. In the Christian scriptures it is written, “In
the beginning was the Word.” But beyond and behind the Manifest was the
Unmanifest. The Word came forth out of the Silence. In all our thoughts, feelings,
words and acts, we too may be thought of as uttering our word or striking our
note. That note of ours must also come forth out of a Silence, out of a still
centre within us. It must not proceed merely from other sounds.
When
we act out of the stillness we are in control of our circumstances...
This
is the difference between making a sound and making a noise. When our thoughts
or words or acts come out of the stillness within our own selves, coming into
being through our own inner and self-conscious choice, then we are truly striking
our note. When they arise only out of reaction to other thoughts or acts, whether
our own or other people’s, then we are only making a noise. Instead of
acting out of the stillness at the centre of our being, we are reacting at the
surface of life. When we act out of the stillness we are in control of our circumstances,
and our acts partake in a tiny measure of the quality of the going forth of
the Word at the beginning of a Universe. When we react at the surface, our circumstances
control us.
Silence
is not negative, not simply an absence of sound. It is the positive reality;
and if we make true sound it is only that through it we may advance into a new
mode of Silence. The highest function of an act or word or work of art or piece
of music is to create a new kind of Silence. There is, of course, great truth
in Browning’s thought of “silence implying”; but, at another
level of experience, sound must surely imply Silence.
There
are many kinds of silence, though we do not usually as yet listen to them with
much appreciative sensitiveness. Yet surely within each of us, at some level
of consciousness, there must be a capacity to appreciate the harmony of a music
made up of silences. Physical silence, though very desirable and an experience
of which most of us are too continually starved in this human world, is not
the most important silence. It is only the last and outermost echo of a silence
that takes its rise from deeper within. There are many who can create a physical
silence and yet go about making a loud noise emotionally and mentally.
For those
to whom the idea temperamentally appeals, our work in the world may be considered
as a constant elimination of noise and a releasing of creative stillness.
...for
within each of us is an inexhaustibly deep - indeed ever deepening - well of
silence, from which we can always draw the harmony needed for each time and
circumstance.
According
to our stature and temperament will be the kind of stillness that we bring into
being; for some stillnesses can be pleasantly gentle, soothing and caressing,
while there are others which are powerful, awe-inspiring, challenging and stern.
No matter where we are or how we are circumstanced, we have always the resources
necessary to do this work; for within each of us is an inexhaustibly deep -
indeed ever deepening - well of silence, from which we can always draw the harmony
needed for each time and circumstance.
In a stillness it
is sometimes possible to hear the song of life or to catch the music
of the great choir or orchestra of life. Only a few members of our
humanity have as yet become full self-conscious members of that choir
or orchestra and proved themselves as master of life’s music.
Much information is available as to the necessary qualifications for
membership of that company. One statement on the subject is that “before
the voice can speak in the presence of the Masters it must have lost
the power to wound”. It is not enough to take this on authority.
It is necessary to discover for ourselves whether or not it is really
necessary for us to retain the power to wound and whether anything
adverse will really happen if we abandon it. Then, having experimented
fully, we shall have direct knowledge and shall be able to choose
for ourselves and, if we will, make our full contribution to the great
song of life. But that song exists for the sake of the Silence, not
the Silence for the song.
|