Silence

Currently residing in a Zen type guesthouse in Auroville, in the South of India. It is a bliss to be here. The noise of Western activity is missing, the mental noise that one 'hears' when in the Western world is almost not existing. Indian people have another education and are not bathed in mental and economic thinking, and one can feel that.

Nature is powerful here too, the natural stillness added on top of the Zenlike surrounding, is a bliss for the spirit, the body, the emotions and mind. It is all coming to a moment of true breathing and clarity emerges from a stillness point that is inside of me.

Here something happens with you, as I am invited to have much more fruit on my daily plate, the tropical weather invites you into slowing down, and taking time to just watch, observe, enjoy, integrate what you see. There are many colorful flowers, the people here are friendly. At first they are a bit withdrawn, watching how you are behaving towards them. But once they feel you are okay and respectful, they are truly nice and helpful wherever they can.

The stillness that the place is bringing enables a shift into yourself and activates on a more in-depth manner the stillness within you. It is easy to leave problems behind here, and to be here/now. It is a pleasure to be here/now. The deeper levels of living are better listened to, the intuition awakens, and it is possible to have a sense of bliss at some times.

Another shift is felt in the relationships and connections. As there is a shift from noise to stillness, one tends to choose to be more solitary or to seek out people that are inwardly silent. Sometimes, as it has now happened with me, I have chosen to leave some 'friends' behind, and to enter a new era of quality interactions, instead of noisily quantity interactions. There is something with noisy social interaction that is more disturbing the inner senses than that is brings about true harmony. Here in Auroville one can connect with quality people. It is a bliss to choose again for quality and leave behind what has proven itself to be of poor interactive and mainly quite immature social interaction.

The more I am here, the more I see how disharmony rules many parts of the world. Social networks shouting over the internet, without true content, talking about friendships that are not worthy of carrying that title. No, it is good to withdraw for a while and then choose again for another type of connection. In this space clarity of beingness offers the vision of better choices. It is my hope that places like this will be spread amongst the whole human world, for the betterment of life. It is like the Dalai Lama once said 'to have a better world we need more ... monks'. In my terms, we need more authenticity, respectful stillness and balance.

aka Komaya

Juna 2010