MUSIC: a rest.
Russell
"Silence is one - but sound springs from silence when its divided moving pair collide - so sound is three, and its vibrations in sequences of rest and action, are also three." [Atomic Suicide, page 109]
Ramsay
"To say that I was surprised at what Mr. Keely has discovered would be saying very little indeed ... It would appear that there are three different spheres in which the laws of motion operate.
1 - The first is the one in which Nature plays her grand fugue on the silent harp of Pendulums. In one period of Nature's grand fugue, as illustrated by pendulums, there are 19 ratios in 25 circles of oscillations ranging over 6 octaves; but all in silence. [Scientific Basis and Build of Music, page 86]
The sympathy of one thing with another, and of one part of a thing with another part of it, arises from the principle of unity. For example, a string requires to be uniform and homogenous to have harmonics producing a fine quality of tone by the sweet blendings of sympathy; if it be not so, the tone may be miserable ... You say you wish I were in touch with Mr. Keely; so do I myself ... I look upon numbers very much as being the language which tells out the doings of Nature. Mr. Keely begins with sounds, whose vibrations can be known and registered. I presume that the laws of ratio, position, duality, and continuity, all the laws which go to mould the plastic air by elastic bodies into the sweetness of music, as we find them operative in the low silence of oscillating pendulums, will also be found ruling and determining all in the high silence of interior vibrations which hold together or shake asunder the combinations which we call atoms and ultimate elements, but which may really be buildings of wondrous complexity occupying different ranges of place and purpose between the visible cosmos and Him who built and evermore buildeth all things. The same laws, though operating in different spheres, make the likenesses of things in motion greater than the differences. [Scientific Basis and Build of Music, page 87]
the present, and the future, developing in geometric progression; as the past retires, the future advances. The rests in harmony correspond with silence in the Scriptures, both limiting and illimitable. But there is this essential difference: musical instruments can only be tuned to a certain pitch, whereas the Bible will never need fresh editions or corrections, but as it always has unfolded, it always will unfold, as it is necessary to meet our higher mental powers. I believe that, eventually, scientific minds will arrive at the conclusion that all the energies around us arise from the laws which regulate the life of matter, and cause the continual development of trinities from unities. Continuity everywhere adapts simple laws to wondrous workings. If we evade the belief in the development of trinities, this scheme falls to the ground. We can conceive no grander idea of the power, wisdom, and love of the Parent of the universe than that of His following out His own characteristics, knowing that at any moment, if His life-giving power were withdrawn, all would crumble into dust. Let us link with this thought these glorious promises— [Harmonies of Tones and Colours, Scripture Compared with Scripture, page 47]
Christ Returns - Speaks His Truth
"Bear in mind, at all times, that your SOURCE of BEING is in two states -
The ACTIVE state of your SOURCE of BEING is the dimension in which you have been conceived and given individualization.
The EQUILIBRIUM of UNIVERSAL CONSCIOUSNESS is the dimension of perfect silence and stillness, in which the underlying IMPULSES OF CREATIVITY are locked together in an embrace of mutual restraint." [Christ Returns - Speaks His Truth, Letter 9, page 8]
Rumi
"This silence, this moment, every moment, if it's genuinely inside you, brings what you need. There's nothing to believe. Only when I stopped believing in myself did I come into this beauty. Sit quietly, and listen for a voice that will say, 'Be more silent.' Die and be quiet. Quietness is the surest sign that you've died. Your old life was a frantic running from silence. Move outside the tangle of fear-thinking. Live in silence." [Rumi]
Maharishi
"Fight the war from silence! This is the supreme technology of defence. It is an ultra-modern technology provided by my Vedic Science and Technology of Defence. We will make the nation so powerful that it will not have to resort to an action as gross as war. On a very subtle level of action, at the source of all action, the total potential of the organizing power of Natural Law is eternally lively. It is from this level of dynamic silence that we can stop the birth of an enemy. It is wise to act from this level where action will be supported by the invincible power of Natural Law." [Maharishi; MAHARISHI'S ABSOLUTE THEORY OF DEFENCE (1996)]
Dr. Wayne W Dryer
"The Mind is like a Pond.
On the surface you see all of the disturbances.
Yet the surface is only a fraction of the Pond.
It is in the depth below the surface,
Where there is stillness that you will come to know the true essence of the pond, as well As your own Mind." [Dr. Wayne W Dryer]
SAI BABA
"When the foot slips, the wound can be healed; but when the tongue slips, the wound it causes in the heart of another will fester for life. The tongue is liable to four big errors: uttering falsehood, scandalizing, finding fault with others and excessive speech. All these have to be avoided if there is to be Santhi (peace) for the individual as well as for society. The bond of brotherhood will be tightened if people speak less and speak sweet. That is why mounam (silence) was prescribed as a vow for sadhakas (spiritual aspirants) by the sastras (scriptures). You are all sadhakas at various stages of the road and so this discipline is valuable for you also." - [SAI BABA]
Cayce
(Q) Pituitary - Silence?
(A) Silence, golden; the forces upon which the greater expression has been set of all the influences of might and power as may be seen in man's experience - SILENCE if ye would hear the Voice of thy Maker! [Cayce (281-29)]
"Not in the storm, the lightning, nor in any of the loud noises as are made to attract man, but rather in the still small voice from within does the impelling influence come to life." [Cayce 239-1]
"Then, enter into the silence with some form of routine that is rather in the form of a prayer, or as an affirmation to the inner self, that the forces or powers that may manifest through self at such a period may always magnify the presence of, not only constructive influence, but from the throne of grace and mercy itself." [Cayce 282-5]
Mahatama Gandhi
"In the attitude of silence the soul finds the path in a clearer light, and what is elusive and deceptive resolves itself into crystal clearness." - [Mahatama Gandhi]
Mother Teresa
"The fruit of silence is prayer, the fruit of prayer is faith, the fruit of faith is love, and the fruit of love is silence." [Mother Teresa]
Lakota Narrative on SILENCE
from A?pétu Wašté Wi?
(1889-1971):
"We Indians know about silence. We are not afraid of it. In fact, for us, silence is more powerful than words. Our elders were trained in the ways of silence, and they handed over this knowledge to us. Observe, listen, and then act, they would tell us. That was the manner of living.
With you, it is just the opposite. You learn by talking. You reward the children that talk the most at school. In your parties, you all try to talk at the same time. In your work, you are always having meetings in which everybody interrupts everybody and all talk five, ten or a hundred times. And you call that ‘solving a problem’. When you are in a room and there is silence, you get nervous. You must fill the space with sounds. So you talk compulsorily, even before you know what you are going to say.
White people love to discuss. They don’t even allow the other person to finish a sentence. They always interrupt. For us Indians, this looks like bad manners or even stupidity. If you start talking, I’m not going to interrupt you. I will listen. Maybe I’ll stop listening if I don’t like what you are saying, but I won’t interrupt you.
When you finish speaking, I’ll make up my mind about what you said, but I will not tell you I don’t agree unless it is important. Otherwise, I’ll just keep quiet and I’ll go away. You have told me all I need to know. There is no more to be said. But this is not enough for the majority of white people.
People should regard their words as seeds. They should sow them, and then allow them to grow in silence. Our elders taught us that the earth is always talking to us, but we should keep silent in order to hear her.
There are many voices besides ours. Many voices…” [Deer Women and Elk Men: Lakota Narratives of Ella Deloria (1889-1971), educator, anthropologist, ethnographer, linguist and novelist of Yankton Lakota heritage.]
Pythagoras
“Learn silence. With the quiet serenity of a meditative mind, listen, absorb, transcribe, and transform.” [Pythagoras]
P.D. Ouspensky
"He who would hear the voice of the silence, the soundless sound, and comprehend it, he has to learn the nature of the intense and perfect concentration of the mind upon some one interior object, accompanied by a complete abstraction from everything pertaining to the external universe, or the world of the senses. Having become indifferent to objects of perception, the pupil must seek out the Raja of the senses, the thought-producer, he who awakes illusion.
The mind is the greater slayer of the Real. Let the disciple slay the slayer. For when to himself his form appears unreal, as do on waking all the forms he sees in dreams; when he has ceased to hear the many, he may discern the One - the inner sound which kills the outer.
Then only, not till then, shall he forsake the region of the false, to come into the realm of the true. Before the soul can see, the harmony within must be attained, and fleshly eyes be rendered blind to all illusion. Before the soul can hear, the image (man) has to become as deaf to roarings as to whispers, to cries of bellowing elephants as to the silvery buzzing of the golden fire fly.
And then to the inner ear will speak.
The Voice of the Silence and say: If thy soul smiles while bathing in the sunlight of thy life; if thy soul sings within thy chrysalis of flesh and matter; if thy soul weeps inside her castle of illusion; if thy soul struggles to break the silver thread that binds her to the Master (Higher self); know, O disciple, thy soul is of the earth. . . . Give up thy life, if thou would'st live. . . .
Learn to discern the real from the false, the everfleeting from the everlasting. Learn above all to separate head-learning from soul-wisdom, the 'eye' from the 'heart' doctrine." [Tertium organum, by P.D. Ouspensky]
Ella Deloria
"We Indians know about silence. We are not afraid of it. In fact, for us, silence is more powerful than words. Our elders were trained in the ways of silence, and they handed over this knowledge to us. Observe, listen, and then act, they would tell us. That was the manner of living.
With you, it is just the opposite. You learn by talking. You reward the children that talk the most at school. In your parties, you all try to talk at the same time. In your work, you are always having meetings in which everybody interrupts everybody and all talk five, ten or a hundred times. And you call that ‘solving a problem’. When you are in a room and there is silence, you get nervous. You must fill the space with sounds. So you talk compulsorily, even before you know what you are going to say.
White people love to discuss. They don’t even allow the other person to finish a sentence. They always interrupt. For us Indians, this looks like bad manners or even stupidity. If you start talking, I’m not going to interrupt you. I will listen. Maybe I’ll stop listening if I don’t like what you are saying, but I won’t interrupt you.
When you finish speaking, I’ll make up my mind about what you said, but I will not tell you I don’t agree unless it is important. Otherwise, I’ll just keep quiet and I’ll go away. You have told me all I need to know. There is no more to be said. But this is not enough for the majority of white people.
People should regard their words as seeds. They should sow them, and then allow them to grow in silence. Our elders taught us that the earth is always talking to us, but we should keep silent in order to hear her.
There are many voices besides ours. Many voices…” [Ella Deloria]
WHAT SOVIET ACOUSTICS HEARD ON MOUNT ATHOS WHEN THEY POINT MICROPHONES AT A PRAYING HESYCHASTIC ELDER
Extracted from the internal report of the hydro- and geoacoustics laboratory of the Institute of Radiophysics of the USSR Academy of Sciences (the Echo-7 project), 1978, and personal notes of the project manager, Professor Dmitry Nikolaevich Voronov.
“…We went to Athos as if into a soundproof chamber. Our scientific duty is to uncover and dissect the phenomenon of “hesychia” . We were sure that the divine silence is just a combination of the low-frequency roar of the sea, the resonance of the caves and self-hypnosis. We were carrying equipment capable of hearing the grass grow. We wanted to record the “sound of holiness”, decompose it into a spectrum and prove that God has no voice. We did not hear it. We heard his deafening Silence …”.
1978. The height of the “détente.” As part of a cultural and scientific exchange program, a group of Soviet acousticians led by Professor Voronov, an atheist and eminent physicist, are allowed to conduct a unique experiment on Mount Athos. The official goal is to study the region’s unique acoustic environment. The unspoken, true goal is to demystify Orthodox hesychasm , the practice of mental prayer.
Voronov and his team were armed to the teeth. Their main tool was the super-sensitive parabolic microphone “Shorokh-3M,” a secret development for detecting enemy submarines by the slightest cavitation noise. The device could pick up a whisper from a distance of a kilometer. Their hypothesis was coherent and materialistic: the so-called “grace” that the monks felt was nothing more than an altered state of consciousness caused by infrasound and the monotonous muttering of prayers. They were going to record this "acoustic signature of mysticism" and make a mockery of it.
Having received permission from the Kinot, the scientists set up camp near Karoulia, the harshest part of Athos, where silent hermits lived in caves and cells . Their target was an old hesychast who had not spoken a word for many years, except for the incessant, silent Jesus Prayer in his heart.
They set up their equipment on a rocky ledge, pointing the parabolic dish of the "Shorokh-3M" at the old man's cell. Voronov personally put on the headphones. The engineer turned on the recording. A complex curve should have appeared on the oscilloscope - the sound of the wind, the distant surf, the breathing of a person.
But on the screen there was a straight, dead line.
In Voronov's headphones there was no silence. It was something else. An absolute, total absence of sound. Not just silence, but a vacuum that seemed to suck out hearing itself. The professor tore off his headphones.
- What's wrong with the equipment? It's not working!
The engineer checked all the systems.
- Dmitry Nikolaevich, everything is normal. There is power, all the indicators are green. Sensitivity is at maximum.
Voronov put the headphones back on. The same thing. Oppressive, unnatural, viscous Nothing. He knew what silence sounded like in an anechoic chamber - you could hear blood flowing through the vessels. Here, there was not even that.
They turned the microphone in the other direction, toward the sea. The devices instantly came to life, the headphones filled with dozens of sounds, the oscilloscope danced. They pointed them at the cell again - and again a gap in the acoustic abyss. As if there was an invisible field around the hermit, a sphere devouring any sound. For
three days they tried to record at least something. They shouted toward the cell - their cries reached the rock, but the sensor aimed at the source of the prayer remained dead. It was physically impossible. The sound wave should have reflected, dissipated, but it disappeared.
On the third day, Voronov had an epiphany. This was not a failure or a passive absence of sound. It was an active process.
“…I looked at this dead line on the green screen and suddenly understood,” he wrote later in his notebook. “We behaved like savages trying to photograph a black hole. We were waiting for a flash, and its essence is in the absorption of light. This prayer did not create sound. It created a field of absolute peace , so pure that the world we are accustomed to, full of noise, simply could not penetrate it. Our devices recorded not the absence of sound, but the presence of Silence . Silence as a force, as energy, as a wall protecting this small area of the world from the entropy of chaos. We pointed the most sensitive microphone at the mystery, and it was deafened. Deafened not by thunder, but by silence . At that moment, I, a professor, a corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences, understood: we found what we were looking for. Proof. Only not that God does not exist. But that His language is Silence . And our world is too noisy for him…”
The expedition was hastily curtailed. In the official report, the Echo-7 project was declared a failure due to “unforeseen failure and abnormal operation of the equipment in difficult terrain conditions.”
Professor Voronov soon abandoned his research in acoustics and switched to theoretical biophysics, writing several papers on “structural fields in living systems” that his colleagues found strange and overly philosophical.
The event on Athos did not become public knowledge. But it is material evidence of the highest order. Soviet science, having created the most perfect hearing to eavesdrop on the mystery of prayer, recorded the acoustic shadow of God’s Presence. They could not record the voice of God, because He does not speak above the noise of the world. He waits for this noise to die down.
Scientists brought a device to Athos to measure prayer, but took away with them a measurement of their own ignorance. And a dead, straight line on the oscilloscope screen became the most intelligible sermon they had ever heard.
©Sergiy Vestnik
See Also
Inaudible Vibration
INAUDIBLE VIBRATIONS
high silence
infrasound
low silence
ultrasound
Balance
Equilibrium
Gravity
Harmony
Peace
quiet
rest
Solitude
Stillness
fulcrum