Making Silence, Becoming Still

Chris Corps on searching for stillness.

One thing we know well about humans. We can make noise. We can talk comfortably about ‘making a noise’ and be well understood. Yet we would find the expression ‘making a silence’ a little odd. For silence just happens, doesn’t it? It’s just the absence of noise, of sound.

But what if silence is more than that, what if we can indeed ‘make silence?’ Words are important. ‘Create silence’ may seem more comfortable, or better still “Allow silence”. Simply, let silence happen. 

In a world of fairly constant man-made sound/noise, finding silence is often a challenge. But when found, it is, first of all, an opportunity to hear, to notice, to listen;  in the city, the park, at the supermarket, in the kitchen. To begin with it will usually be human sound we notice. Mostly. In other environments, less human dominated, it may be animal sound, the sounds of nature, wind through trees, water rippling, discreet sound, interweaving natural and technological sound. Heard by the very act of ‘noticing’. And these are the sounds we hear. The external sounds of the world around us. 

But to become more attentively silent, is also an invitation to listen internally. To move beyond simply ‘hearing, to a place of ‘listening’ While hearing may happen, listening requires attention.

Attention asks for stillness, and stillness most of all has to set aside distraction, both of the outer, and most challengingly, the inner - those thoughts, anxieties, plans, hopes, expectations, which familiarise our day to day lives.

Becoming still in a world of constant, often hurried movement, is not easy. Creating and maintaining ‘stillness’ might seem like ‘doing nothing’. And perhaps that’s the point. While ‘doing nothing’ we might reach a point of ‘being something’ or simply being.

Accepting the challenge of moving through silence to a place of stillness, of ‘silent stillness’ gives us the chance to listen, internally, creatively, deeply. To do this alone is one thing, to do this collectively within a small or larger group, strengthens our capacity for an inner awareness and deeper understanding. A form of ‘dynamic stillness’.

Written by Chris Corps