What Benefit Does "Silence" Bring to Daily Life?
The Listening Prayer
a painting description
As always you are free to interpret this piece however you choose or are led to understand it.
These are simply my own thoughts which I feel inspired to share.
My own interpretations change as I revisit with pieces as time goes on, but these are my initial thoughts at the time of creation.
Here’s a video of this piece, it’s a raw explanation & goes a bit more in depth than the writing. However the writing has it’s own power and is art in & of itself. I encourage you to use both to receive the most impact.
There is beautiful music in silence. Listen for it now.
If you really listened long enough, you would hear a new beginning, a rebirth. Silence is the place to begin anew. When you are truly silent, there is absence of “noise” such as the unwelcome noise of the mind, those worrisome thoughts of dread or doubt. Within the quiet there is a releasing and therefore also a receiving. When we let go of the noise long enough it creates space for that which we have been desiring to be planted, for any doubt will keep it out. Quiet stillness is where the weeds are uprooted and the soil is fertilized.
This silence is a space, a heart space. It is the attitude of stillness not the actual absence of sound that creates the flow state of silent reflection. In fact, everything boils down to attitude and heart motive, that is where power resides. When we give the power of our attention to something, we hold an attitude about it and back up that “object of our attention” with more power. When we allow unwanted circumstances to have power over us, it is only because we are giving our own power to it. The place of Quiet is a place to draw back our power from those things which are so easy to complain about and allow that power to be re-dispersed according to the Diving Design of our lives. Since our attention is Power in action, we strive to surrender our power in order to merge as One with The Divine and use our attention in accordance with the Highest Good.
This Unity and Alignment with Source requires surrender and allowance. When we give up our strong will and tendency to force things, we allow and welcome with gratitude the greater good and the Divine Dream to take form. When we draw our desires from The Greatest Good to begin with we will have a smooth easy go as our dreams unfold. It is to create the dream of our life from a place of intuition and guidance, every step just feels right! To hear this guidance is to be awake to our spiritual sense of hearing, to do so is to be One with The Inner Being and be open to the limitless possibilities available to us. Being Open is to be in a place of receivership where the analytical mind is silenced. Patterns of judgmental thoughts often block and crowd out our intuitive leads because they have been created from past experiences and not from infinite possibility. When we grow new patterns of thought that are based in The Wisdom Within we start to live from this heart space as if it were second nature, we become in tune with The Spirit. This place is a place of Knowing.
True Knowing is absent of doubt and is full of grounded faith & belief. This strong belief is the way to truly listen for wisdom, for we offer up our requests with our beliefs. If we pray for one thing while believing another, we will be given that which has the power of belief behind it. This is why we are told in the sacred scriptures to “Pray believing you have already received.”
If we pray from a place of trust and knowing we will be answered with more experiences to strengthen that trust and sureness, because we look for the proof of what we believe. We are tuned into the belief, we are constantly listening for it. However if we do not live our lives from that same place of knowing, the life we live on the regular will be the answers we receive, for all of our lives are lived out of the beliefs we hold, we take all actions based off of them and every thought and emotion can be traced back to a belief in our subconscious. Therefore the living of life is our biggest prayer. We must strive to live a conscious life so that we do not offer up unconscious prayers. If we do not act out our faith, the words we offer up will be in vain. If we only live from this quiet place of knowing every so often, we will only be met with clarity & peace every so often. If we want consistent Oneness we must always be seeking out The Presence, it must be our underlying heart motive in every given moment.
This is why the music notes in this piece were inspired by a song named “Seek Ye First” this song is made up of words from scripture and is reminding us that all our desires will be met when we seek this place of Still Quiet Presence. This place is The Source, it is where all the fulfillment of our desires originate. In the end, the way to live with “awakened ears” is to tune our ears to the vibration of Infinite Intelligence & to be aware of when we are listening for anything else in order to retune. Of course we are only human and will often tune our ears elsewhere, so how naturally will we be able to tune back up to Our Center? How quickly, how often? What spiritual practices will we pursue to cultivate this foundational skill?
This is not about believing harder or taking more actions of faith, it’s about slowing down all of the opposing beliefs long enough for the natural light to fill us and take over. Guidance is always at hand within us and is not something that needs to be sought out, so much as something that needs to reopened & no longer blocked up.
This painting depicts many ways that make it easy for us to take the mind off of the things that hinder, things that create the space to forget the wild-mind and racing thoughts. There are many things that welcome us into this flow state where we are connected with the Divine, music being a primary element in this painting, as well as nature and conversations with other humans. It’s really about changing perspective, getting outside of the usual patterns of thought. We do this through insight from others when we are too close to our own situation, or through creating music or art, dancing or singing, activating different parts of our brains and opening up to The Creative Energy, The Force behind all things. Nature is the easiest place for me personally to experience this slower state of being. Listening to the sound of a bubbling brook instantly tunes the instrument of my mind, body and soul to the notes of love, gratitude, peace & calm that is The Presence “herself”.
How often do we allow ourselves the time to enjoy a walk in nature, the time to pick up an instrument, or the time to truly listen to a friend?
What stands in your way?
True Life and Life to the full are waiting within your own quiet heart!
Being in alignment with The Presence is a prayer in and of itself and is the truest, deepest prayer of our hearts! To be in conscious awareness of The Presence within us, all around us, moving through us, and in love with us! Aware of that reality in every moment is our souls One Desire and we know that already this prayer has been answered for we have been promised, “Whoever seeks me shall find me.”
The question is, will we seek?
Further thoughts:
When dealing with "unanswered" prayers:
Sometimes we think that the Divine going to show up in our life in a certain way and when he doesn't, we're so fixated on the fact that he doesn't, we missed the way that he does. You may ask yourself, How can I be the receiver? Is there another way it could be revealed to me, another way it could come to me? How can I remove my focus from the outcome I expected in order to see the mysterious way I have been answered?
Verses for further contemplation:
"Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you." ~Matthew 6:33
"Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you." ~Matthew 7:7
"You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart." ~Jeremiah 29:13
"When you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. "And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him." ~Matthew 6:6-8
"For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. But I ask, have they not heard?” ~Romans 10:10, 17-18
"And Jesus answered them, "Have faith in God. Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be taken up and thrown into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours." ~Mark 11:22-24
"Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible. And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him." ~Hebrews 11:1, 3, 6
"Draw near to me, hear this: from the beginning I have not spoken in secret, from the time it came to be I have been there." ~Isaiah 48:16
"Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded." ~James 4:8
"Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped." ~Isaiah 35:5
"Hear, you deaf, and look, you blind, that you may see!" ~Isaiah 42:18
"Son of man, you dwell in the midst of a rebellious house, who have eyes to see, but see not, who have ears to hear, but hear not, for they are a rebellious house." ~Ezekiel 12:2