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== Introduction ==
<div style="color:#000000;">Take a deep breath. Close and open your eyes. Look at the phrase ‘mental silence’ without analysing or trying to intellectualise it in some other way. Slowly pronounce each syllable mindfully (say men-tal si-lens). Listen to the spaces and sounds behind the sounds. Be a witness in the space, present yet unmoved by the physical sensations and inner experiences triggered when you say and listen to the phrase. Mental silence is a certain calmness, like a substance of eternal and indestructible peace. This article is an attempt to help you harness this, understand, experience and apply the concept of mental silence in your pursuits. </div>
== What is mental silence? ==
<div style="color:#000000;">To experience it completely, one needs to first understand what the mind is. </div>
=== The mind ===
<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">The mind is like water in an ocean. Waves, ripples and currents are akin to the thoughts and their intensity. Impurities can be mixed into it and they can also be removed. </span><span style="background-color:#ffff00transparent;color:#000000;">The mind is a substance which can accommodate various movements and objects but is not a movement or an object by itself.</span><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;"> </span><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">However, the identity of oneself is a large object in each person’s mind. </span>
=== Mental Silence ===
<div style="color:#000000;">When the objects (biases) are removed and movements (thoughts) cease in the substance called the mind, the state entered is mental silence. The same becomes present when thoughts come from outside and cross the mind as a flight of birds crosses the sky in a windless air. In such a silent mind, movements (thoughts) passes, disturbs nothing and leaves no trace</div>
== Practising mental silence ==
<span style="background-color:#ffff00transparent;color:#000000;">Silently witnessing one’s own thoughts without analysis, judgement or emotion is the beginning of practising mental silence.</span><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;"> </span>
=== Keeping the mind calm ===
<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">Mental silence is a certain calmness. This does not necessarily mean that there are no thoughts; it means that regardless of the number, frequency and intensity of thoughts, the mind-substance remains peaceful. </span><span style="background-color:#ffff00transparent;color:#000000;">The key to keeping the mind calm is treating thoughts as a temporary guest in the mind</span><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">, and not to prevent these surface thoughts from entering or eliminating inner thoughts of clarity, light and deeper aspiration. </span>
=== Feeling peaceful ===
<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">Peace and mental silence go hand-in-hand. </span><span style="background-color:#ffff00transparent;color:#000000;">Mental silence is not a state in which one feels empty and devoid of thoughts. On the contrary, mental silence comes about when peace as a substance enters one’s mind from higher planes.</span><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;"> </span><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">In this solid peace, one is unperturbed by the coming and going of thoughts, as at the maximum they scratch the surface of the rock-solid peace.</span>
=== Widening ===
<div style="color:#000000;">After the discovery of quiet and calm peace, one must strive to ensure that it occupies all parts of one’s being. This state must widen and one must lose himself in it and become one with it. When one has widened his/her consciousness sufficiently enough to dissolve in and experience the all-pervasive, timeless and infinite peace, the receptivity to the Divine will be enhanced. </div>
<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">Sri Aurobindo says “</span><span style="background-color:#ffff00transparent;color:#000000;">The wider your consciousness becomes, the more you will be able to receive from above.</span><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;"> </span><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">The Shakti will be able to descend and bring strength and light as well as peace into the system. What you feel as narrow and limited in you is the physical mind; it can only widen if this wider consciousness and the light come down and possess the nature.”</span>
=== Problem-solving ===
<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">The Mother says “</span><span style="background-color:#ffff00transparent;color:#000000;">When one has learned to silence the mind at will and to concentrate it in </span><span style="background-color:#ffff00transparent;color:#000000;">''receptive''</span><span style="background-color:#ffff00transparent;color:#000000;"> </span><span style="background-color:#ffff00transparent;color:#000000;">silence, then there will be no problem that cannot be solved,</span><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;"> </span><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">no mental difficulty whose solution cannot be found.”</span>
=== Guidance for one’s actions ===
<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">A blank slate is one that is ready to be written on. </span><span style="background-color:#ffff00transparent;color:#000000;">Both knowledge and its usage can descend into one’s mind when one removes the noise. This can guide in decision-making, the direction of efforts and everyday actions. </span>
=== Gaining insights ===
<span style="background-color:#ffff00transparent;color:#000000;">When one is in receptive silence, revelations can occur.</span><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;"> </span><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">These might be personal or pertaining to something for which one is seeking answers. These insights can deepen one’s understanding of a particular topic. </span>
=== Emotional issues ===
<span style="background-color:#ffff00transparent;color:#000000;">The intensity of the emotions felt is greatly reduced since one is not personalising an experience or situation.</span><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;"> </span><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">With practice that is integrated into everyday life, handling conflicts, relationship issues, crises and other triggers that can impact emotions can be made easier. At the same time, one becomes an instrument for a greater Force, Love, Will and Delight to course through, in a calm state and act on the world.</span>
== Conclusion ==
<div style="color:#000000;">Practising mental silence brings the ever-jumping mind to a state of rest, in which one can experience solitude and be receptive to divine guidance. The practice of mental silence can be used to understand the subjects which one finds difficult. It improves concentration. It is extremely effective for reducing stress and anxiety. The applications of mental silence in education and health are effective. The next step in the road ahead is to increase awareness and improve the practice. </div>