Voices
from Silence
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A 'first Friday of the month' series, from October 2024.
Personal stories of engaging in silence by practitioners from the Global Majority Heritage (GMH) community.* |
A quarter of the way into the new millennium the reality for many people from this community is that their lives and stories are sidelined. Their voices are silenced.
So, although people from the GMH may have a spiritual practice of silence, authors in these communities tend to write more about silencing than silence-based prayer.
This new series is a way to bring some voices from the GMH community into the conversations and resources about silence on the Seeds of Silence website.
So, although people from the GMH may have a spiritual practice of silence, authors in these communities tend to write more about silencing than silence-based prayer.
This new series is a way to bring some voices from the GMH community into the conversations and resources about silence on the Seeds of Silence website.
January 2025:
Rajesh David, 'In the Deep Heart's Core'
Image: Hilma af Klint, ‘Group IX/UW, The dove, no 2’, 1915. Photo: The Moderna Museum, Stockholm.
Rajesh David, Wales, UK
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Listen to Rajesh reading
'In the Deep Heart's Core' |
In the Deep Heart's Core
‘I hear it in the deep heart’s core’. This line from W. B. Yeats’ poem, 'The Lake Isle of Innisfree',** beautifully captures the meaning of Silence, which we feel in the depth of our hearts.
When I practise Centering Prayer, I am guided by a similar image given to us by Thomas Keating. He sees the prayer as an act of going deep into the inner chamber of our heart, where there is a deep communion with the Inner Presence. There are no words here, but a deep silence in which one is totally present. It is here that one can sense the intimacy of love.
Growing up in India, inspired from a young age by both music and Yoga, I immersed myself in the study of Indian classical music and Yoga philosophy. The wisdom of the Upanishads has guided and shaped my thinking and understanding of the world and my place in it. This naturally pulled me in the direction of Nada Yoga – The Yoga of Sound. Nada means sound. Within the context of Indian music, Nada refers to the very essence of the vibration of the sound of music. Nada Yoga interprets the cosmos through the medium of sound.
According to the Upanishads, the origin of the universe, or to be more precise, of manifestation, is Sound. And the very essence of that Sound is Silence. It is Pure, Absolute. It is non-dual. It is Love! Sound is the manifest universe – Silence is Pure Consciousness.
In my Centering Prayer practice, as I renew my intention to consent to the Inner Presence and its action within, I feel a tug in the heart’s core, drawing me away from noise and distractions into a realm of deep silence. And when my mind attaches itself to a thought, I gently introduce the sacred word, drawing me back into the realm of silence, held in the intimacy of Love.
Our spiritual practice is a journey from Sound to Silence. In the deep heart’s core we become one with Silence.
In the Deep Heart's Core
‘I hear it in the deep heart’s core’. This line from W. B. Yeats’ poem, 'The Lake Isle of Innisfree',** beautifully captures the meaning of Silence, which we feel in the depth of our hearts.
When I practise Centering Prayer, I am guided by a similar image given to us by Thomas Keating. He sees the prayer as an act of going deep into the inner chamber of our heart, where there is a deep communion with the Inner Presence. There are no words here, but a deep silence in which one is totally present. It is here that one can sense the intimacy of love.
Growing up in India, inspired from a young age by both music and Yoga, I immersed myself in the study of Indian classical music and Yoga philosophy. The wisdom of the Upanishads has guided and shaped my thinking and understanding of the world and my place in it. This naturally pulled me in the direction of Nada Yoga – The Yoga of Sound. Nada means sound. Within the context of Indian music, Nada refers to the very essence of the vibration of the sound of music. Nada Yoga interprets the cosmos through the medium of sound.
According to the Upanishads, the origin of the universe, or to be more precise, of manifestation, is Sound. And the very essence of that Sound is Silence. It is Pure, Absolute. It is non-dual. It is Love! Sound is the manifest universe – Silence is Pure Consciousness.
In my Centering Prayer practice, as I renew my intention to consent to the Inner Presence and its action within, I feel a tug in the heart’s core, drawing me away from noise and distractions into a realm of deep silence. And when my mind attaches itself to a thought, I gently introduce the sacred word, drawing me back into the realm of silence, held in the intimacy of Love.
Our spiritual practice is a journey from Sound to Silence. In the deep heart’s core we become one with Silence.
Rajesh David, January, 2025.
For Rajesh's musical setting of the poem from which the title of his text for this series is taken, and a beautiful video click here.
To learn more about Rajesh David - his background, music and retreats - click on 'The Song of the Heart' image, which will take you to his website.
* The term 'Global Majority Heritage' (GMH) refers to people whose backgrounds are from non-Western, non-White ethnic and cultural groups, reflecting the fact that the majority of the world’s population comes from Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East. The term challenges the traditional framing of racial and ethnic minorities by emphasizing that these populations are, in fact, the global majority.
** See Richard J. Finneran, ed., The Collected Works of W.B. Yeats: The Poems, Vol 1, (Scribner, 1997), 39.
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