Silence

A Taoist author I read recently suggested that all of us could benefit from silence. His suggestion was that we should each strive to spend one three-hour block a week not speaking.

That's a snap for me. I did not speak this evening, nor will I speak tomorrow evening or the evening after. This schedule is subject to change if a cat shits on the floor or something, but I shall likely observe silence each evening as I have done for years.

I never considered it a spiritual exercise, although in retrospect, I can see where I have benefitted from it.

I have friends who are out socializing literally every night of the week. I don't know how they do it. It would exhaust me.

Thursday and Friday and Saturday are usually Red Cup Coffeehouse evenings, but Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday are usually spent alone at home. I come home from work, close the front door behind me, and light some incense. I have an old Mac that does nothing but play iTunes 24/7. The playlist is heavy on traditional Asian music -- lute, shakuhachi, sitar and others. There's also some Narada and Windham Hill guitar stuff, one Peter Gabriel cut and some Hindu and Tibetan Buddhist chants.

I have a lot of floor lamps, but they all have 20 or 40 watt bulbs, so there's a general sort of diffuse dim light.

The resulting atmosphere is one of quiet and introspection.

I have two sofas - one in the living room I never use and an old futon against one wall in the dining room. I'll stretch out on the futon with a book and read until it's time to go to bed. Sometimes I'll just sleep there.