My father keeps telling me to find my ‘creative silence’. What is it? Does it exist at all? Why do I need to find it?” asks Akaanksha, 17 years old.
You need the creative silence because the world is too large and the mind too small to hold it all. Take time off and play with your creative silence, for you always have the choice to walk out on the noise, sit down and quietly rejoice. Anything that has redefined the world, any new idea that’s been unfurled, has always emerged from the serenely intense, clear water depth of creative silence.
Some see it as a raging fire, others as an expression of their heart’s desires. If you want to feel it, just quietly sit and flow into it. You’ll first find that your mind is thrown around like a boat in a storm. Stay calm. Don’t wait till you reach the shore. Don’t wait for the storm to get over. Storms will keep raging, the mind will keep tossing, and the chaos will never end. Only remember this, friend. The storm is on the surface. The silence is below. So that’s the place you should go.
Watch the creative guys, they are so adept at this game! They keep chatting with you for hours, but their mind is not the same as yours. Some part inside them has found the silence. Some part of them is chilled, some part is quiet, while some part is filled with intense light. So while they string you along, they are actually writing a poem or composing a song or unravelling the expression of a mathematical equation.
You can dump them at a marketplace or put them in a boiler room, and they will smile with grace and just go “boom”. That’s because they have found the silence, and can be at ease anywhere. They’ve been there and done that, and the world can never get into their hair. When they want to exit from a bolted door, they just take a plunge and the world won’t exist anymore.
That’s called living life with a flair. If ever you get there, you join a charmed circle of a rare few, and all good things will flow into you. The silence isn’t just creative. It can draw in fame and fortune too. In time, if you nurture it right, it will elevate you to great heights. But it’s also been known to make you fall. When you think you’ve created it all, and bloat with pride, it will take you for a massive ride. Few find it, fewer still have the mind to hold it, unfold it, spread its fragrance around and fill the world with its silent sound.
Take the first step today. Know that this is a field of endless play. It’s an infinite energy squeezed into your mind’s den, it’s your friend gone to hide when you counted 10. There’s nothing more to it. No religion, no theory, no legend, no story.
It’s just there, hiding, waiting for you to call out its name. Go search for it, play the game. I guarantee your life will never be the same.