Silence and Contemplation
Can Be Found at Any Point
Carlos Cardoso Aveline
* Being quiet for some time and away from day-to-day work renews one’s view of life. The horizon then gets wider. The direct perception of things – independent from thought – starts to flow better. In quietness we see the power of silence. As we cultivate calm, our understanding becomes deeper.
* Confronted with the idea that a part of us all is reborn again every year, and according to other cycles as well, a reader and friend wrote: “I feel as if something in me were sadly dead”. And we answered: “You can always connect to your spiritual soul, which is eternal. Any time. Besides, there is no real death. So one should rather learn How to Live.”
* One must seek the correct balance between sound and silence. Coexistence between the two factors is inevitable. Sound without silence loses all meaning and ceases to be understood. Silence, if totally soundless, leads one into a sort of disorientation. Yet sound and silence do not need to be physical in every situation. There is a silence of the soul in the middle of worldly noise, which brings enlightenment. There is a sound and a voice of the soul which bring meaning and insight.
* One minute of meaningful silence says more than long hours of empty talk, or idle thought. A few seconds of profound silence may enable one to attain a significant degree of inner peace. Once the pilgrim is in the presence of Truthfulness, noiselessness will make it possible to perform effective actions.
* When agitation spreads around you, concentrate on serenity.
* If collective anxiety seems “contagious”, make your personal world stop and seek in silence for that which has a timeless value in life.
* Each time the outward noise threatens to disturb you, take refuge in the supreme and innermost level of your life; leave aside thoughtless actions, and put your soul into the invisible Sun of inner peace.
* By replacing wrong ideas with right thought, a student gathers adequate magnetism and strengthens his will. Thus desire, both in its positive and negative forms of “attraction” and “rejection”, will be made to become will force and magnetic power.
* What is the importance of the natural environment in theosophical studies? Helena Blavatsky wrote: “The silent worship of abstract or noumenal Nature, the only divine manifestation, is the one ennobling religion of Humanity.” (“The Secret Doctrine”, volume I, p. 381, footnote.)
The Main Factor
* Some texts don’t need to be read in a linear sequence. Readers are invited to choose any article at any moment in the series “Thoughts Along the Road”. [1] All of them are complete in themselves, and more. One single paragraph chosen at random in any text of the series might be the material for a calm reading and long contemplation.
* Each paragraph may be seen of course in the context of the other paragraphs of the same article, and this is good. The accumulative effect of linear reading is a valuable goal. On the other hand, a paragraph can be examined in the context of the reader’s life, and this is even better. What makes the connection between one idea and another is one’s soul. The conscience of the reader is the main factor in enlightening a good text and seeing perhaps more than one layer of meaning in it.
NOTE:
[1] See for instance “Thoughts Along the Road – 01”.
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“Thoughts Along the Road – 54” was published as an independent text on 24 May 2021. An initial version of it, with no indication as to the name of the author, is part of “The Aquarian Theosophist”, January 2020 edition, pp. 9-11.
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See other writings of Carlos Cardoso Aveline.
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