The Words Rise Out of the Silence

 

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In Silence there is eloquence. Stop weaving and see how the pattern improves.

― Jalaluddin Mevlana Rumi

When my mind is noisy the words are just surface chatter. What wants to be born in me becomes stuck when I don’t allow the silence to rise within.

For me, the silence within is more than just a quiet mind. It’s a palatable presence. It is the Presence and it is always there. Sometimes, like right now for instance, I had a hard time during my meditation. The deep silence was hidden by surface disturbance of frenetic thought. Sometimes this happens when there are a lot of things I’m trying to deal with at once or when there are things I’d rather not deal with. The inner chatter is related to fear and doubt. 

The silence, the Silence is more real than all the noise. When I touch deep silence it feels as though it isn’t just within. It’s all around me, too. The Presence has entered my whole experience. As I relax and rest in it, sometimes the words rise up, the words that are true and carry the spark of creation. Silence carries possibility and we give birth to what rises when we take those words and ideas and bring them into form.

Some writers and artists…I think especially poets…feel as though their work comes from something outside of themselves. I think it can feel as if that were so if you’re solely identifying with your smaller self. It can feel as though it is coming from somewhere other than you. It’s coming out of that which is greater than you, but I believe that greater beingness lives as you.

If you wish to create a work of art, a poem, a novel, your life, I encourage you to spend time in the silence and with the Silence. It holds everything and offers this gift to you, always. But it takes courage to be open to listening. Anything can rise. It takes patience and trust for the Silence doesn’t live in time. It also takes courage to then take what you’ve heard and felt and turn it into something. Though it feels as though it is otherworldly in its presentation to you, at its heart it is the very essence of you as well as all of your experiences.

So trust, be patient and willing to share. The silence/Silence is waiting for you. Your greatest treasure is a world of possibility that lives within. Go to it, open your heart and mind and let the journey begin.

Creation Requires Waiting and Action

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Much of the time when you’re writing or creating something, you don’t know what the next step is. There is some mysteriousness to the process. An image flashes into your consciousness or you see something and it triggers a memory. Just go with it. Begin with what rises to your awareness. Out of it the next step will appear. But first you must act on what comes up.

Writing about this way of creation came to me as I followed an idea that rose up. I was thinking about how yesterday I felt my mother near me and how the floodgates opened and I just cried for a while. I was grieving the loss of her as well as the loss of what my family might have been if things turned out differently.

As I followed the line of thought about what happened yesterday, another idea arose. The first thought came as I was quietly opening to ideas to write about. That idea led to another one about working with what comes up and how that will lead you to the next thing or idea.

In the beginning, creation is more about waiting though action is crucial in the full unfoldment of something. Action is what comes between periods of waiting and wondering. Creation requires patience to allow ideas to rise, and it requires action to bring those ideas to fruition. Action is processing. This is where it gets rather mysterious, but it feels as though with each step the next one appears.

When we don’t act, we become blocked. We try to figure out what to do next, but we can’t know until we’ve taken just one small, inspired step. The idea itself is your inspiration. Let it move you. Often we feel we have to figure out every step immediately. This is where we begin planning the whole process. We don’t need to plan. The idea just has to be processed through us in order for us to begin to see it better. All that takes is one simple step at a time. The big picture is the idea itself. We have something to aim for, but we don’t need to plan every step. To do so jams up the process and what wanted to be born gets replaced with what we think it should be and we’ll have missed the chance to experience something more beautiful than we could ever plan.

Life is like this. I can have a vision for my future, but then what? Often we try to figure out what to do next. The idea came and now we feel we have to create a plan of action. But really all we need to do is take one step towards that vision. You can’t see through the fog unless you step into it. Once we do, another idea about the next step will show itself. All we need to do is see just a little more. This seeing stirs all that lives within and the next step rises to meet us. It simply grows out of the movement and what was stirred within us. Sometimes that first step will bring something or someone to us that will be the next step. It will unfold more perfectly than we could ever plan it if we allow it to.

Yesterday, I was stirred by memories and feelings rising out of the pain. I simply let them move me and move through me and now can breathe a little better. By letting it all move, by taking the step to open to what came up, blockages were removed.

We are being and we are process. We are the unfoldment of Life Itself. We are created and creators moved by Eternal Being. We are the mysteriousness of Life, of Love. Let it be and all is revealed.

Grasping at Rainbows

 

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You must give birth to your images. They are the future waiting to be born.

~ Rainer Maria Rilke

Creation sometimes feels like you are trying to grasp rainbows. All those brilliant ideas shine for a moment and then the clouds drift over the sun again. What was once perfectly clear is gone.

And this happens constantly. We can write down our ideas, though it feels as though they are never as perfect once we begin to bring them into form. The rainbow is perfect and beautiful, but a photograph rarely captures the power of sunlight on water vapor the way our bare eye does.

But we try to capture this beauty anyway. We are creators and rainbows are our inspiration. Ideas come to us, rise up and we shine the light of consciousness on them. In that moment ideas are as bright and colorful as a rainbow. We can’t grasp an idea like we can hold onto a bouquet of flowers. To grasp at something ethereal by nature leaves us frustrated. Relax and let the idea float.

One morning I saw an amazing rainbow out my office window. But I let myself get distracted by something and then I fumbled with my phone to take a picture. The rainbow faded fast. Instead of trying to capture it, I could have simply looked at it while it was full and bright. Those moments of enjoyment would have done more to imprint its beauty upon my memory than a weakened version in a photograph.

Relax and be with your ideas as they rise. Of course get something down on paper, but don’t grasp at the idea. It’s futile. If you reach into the moist air, your hand goes through the rainbow. Let your ideas leave an imprint on your heart. Just be present with them.

And if you don’t manage to get it down on paper, don’t worry. The idea may rise again, but it will only do so if you relax. Remember you’re not trying to capture the rainbow or the ideas themselves. All we have is the memory, the imprint left behind by the beauty rising within.