“In school you have a teacher who is teaching you and offering his wisdom-light to you through language. In the spiritual life also, the teacher teaches through language. But the language of the spiritual teacher is meditation. Meditation is the inner language, and the teacher teaches meditation through silence.
“All real spiritual Masters teach meditation to their disciples and admirers in silence. When a genuine spiritual Master meditates, Peace, Light and Bliss descend from above and enter into the sincere seeker. Then automatically he learns how to meditate from within.”
– Sri Chinmoy
When we think of learning, we think of studying books and attending lectures – knowledge imparted through words. Yet the vast bulk of all learning is conveyed in and through silence: the art of meditation, especially so.
Silence is the air that meditation breathes. Yes, we can be told about posture, breath control and chanting mantras, of the importance of meditating early in the morning – these are peripheral details. Yet the essence of meditation is wrapped in silence, protected by silence and blossoms within silence. Silence baffles us, a language with which we are unfamiliar: how are we going to learn the art of meditation if we don’t know its basic vocabulary?
A baby cannot speak or understand words – yet learns to walk. How? – by observing how adults walk, and imitating them. Seeing adults walking, a whole new world of possibilities opens up before the baby’s imagination: the baby is inspired to follow suit, then gradually does so.
Spiritually, we are babies. To learn true meditation and activate our highest spiritual potential, we need the example, inspiration, guidance and teaching flowing from the highest source.
Only a Master of silence can teach and convey meditation, the truth of silence, in silence.