A new Danish version of the Norwegian book “Stillhetens Psykologi” edited by Are Holen will hit the streets in not too long. “Stillhetens Psykologi” (literally translated “The Psychology of Silence”) is a basic book about Acem Meditation, a meditation technique fom Norway. My favourite part of the book is the last chapter, called “Silence”. In this chapter it is described in a poetic way how meditation can make it possible to get in touch with more silent parts of our existence. One sentence goes: “Sjelen kan få hviske oss i øret om noe ulevet”, meaning something like “The soul can whisper us in the ear about something unlived.” This sentence reminds me of a song by Carla Bruni, the French singer-songwriter and earlier topmodel who is now French president Nicolas Sarkozy’s wife. In the song Péché d’envie she sings about everything she wants to have done in her life:
“I want to have done, said, been, understood, bitten, slipped, cherrished…” and the list goes on. She also asks the Devil to forgive her all her beautiful desires… The parallell between meditation and Carla Bruni’s song might seem far fetched. Nevertheless, many of the desires mentioned in Péché d’envie could manifest themselves through the spontaneous activity during Acem Meditation. In Carla’s song the desires come through an exhaustive list of words, during Acem Meditation they might come in a more subtle way.
I always think the value of silence is really not known. I even find myself avoiding it. But sitting quietly watching something natural and letting my thoughts flow is quite like listening to music. Silence is definitely a resource but its often hard to find, hence why I meditate. My avoidance of silence has always interested me. I like the first line of the song in your blog, which also says something of contradictions, silence is not a rational place, its a freedom and a resource.
I also find myself avoiding silence! But silence can also be noisy at times, it is not necessarily all calm and serenity. As I walked home from brunch at a friend’s place earlier this afternoon I was fascinated by the people I walked by. I walked along “søerne”, a row of lakes stretching accross Copenhagen, and a popular recreational area, especially in the early spring weather we had today. What fascinated me was at first how the human and urban landscape changed as I moved through different parts of the city, but also how all these people, even though they were so different, also had something in common, enjoying sun and the view over the lakes.
It’s an amazing experence to have inner silence but it’s hard to keep it. Do you have any tips or easy way I mean practical way in daily life to achieve it?
Hmmm… I would recommend meditation. Eg. Acem Meditation. But meditation is a process, and one shouldn’t go into that process with a specific goal – by wanting to go faster you’ll then end up going slower and working against the process.
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