The Devotion to Silence

When you are on a spiritual path, it’s not necessarily immediately obvious what is going to draw you further and deeper along your quest for the realization of your true Self.  During the Karma Yoga studies, this year, my intention became clear that I wanted to deepen my commitment to the practices and understanding of the teachings of the lineage that Acharya Shunya was teaching. 

As I was devoting more time to revisit the teachings and deepening my commitment, I have been thinking of our teacher and the way my listening has changed during this period of time. Listening to Acharya Shunya deeply and contemplating on what she teaches is an attunement, an upgrade to the nervous system. When I realized how my way of listening has changed over time, I asked myself, “What are you allowing in, allowing yourself to feel? Perhaps these are things you have always known and felt but weren’t allowed to know and feel?“ For me, this change happens when you start listening (shravanam)  at the soul level, with your whole being, and you feel that you’re not too sensitive or too imaginative. Perhaps you feel like a misfit, a rebel, but the connection with nature, animals, the forest, the wind and Acharya Shunya’s teachings -they get you and you immediately recognize that it is real, it is true. You just know that you have landed in the right place. 

Listening to any of the teachings of Acharya Shunya lifts your heart and lends you resilience. These days, more than ever, we need places to put our attention, that bring us hope and help us feel more fully the possibility of our unified field. My place is nature. Opinions that divide us are missing in nature. Nature reflects union, collaboration, reciprocity, give and take without judgment. I spend a lot of time outdoors, and when I was a child, living close to a river, being in the water, became a healing and consoling place for me. 

With my curiosity aroused, I started thinking back to what were my experiences of listening that made me feel more connected and less alone? While in nature, you are not listening or watching for a feeling, a reaction and all the rest, you’re listening and receiving it. There is a generosity in the surrounding and the very air we breathe. You are free from fear, loneliness, agitation and hurt. When we’re in nature, deeply listening; the wind in the trees, the sound of leaves falling, the movement of water, being still, stepping into the silence beneath it and receiving what it is gifting us, becomes shravanam, listening with your whole being.  

What I discovered through this listening  was that the substratum of listening was silence, that holds everything, the connective tissue of all life. This is what I was hearing and learning from Acharya Shunya over and over again. She would tell us to keep listening to the deepest inner voice, even the tapes we might not want to hear, just be willing to listen and let them pass. Listening like this she would point out often requires reigning in the senses. It is shravanam, listening with your whole being, the awareness is doing the listening and Atman, the witness is doing the watching.  

Listening, acceptance of “what is”, is calming and an authentic way of sharing. Our world is overwhelmed by so much digital static, political clamor and the constant hum of anxiety and relief can come by listening deeply. We need more listening to one another, to the environment and even more on a personal, interior level with full intention. Deep listening extends beyond sound, embracing intuition, it is a calming and authentic way of sharing within and with others. When we look into the eyes of a dog, a horse or a bird, we are looking into their soul. 

There is so much that is beyond words and language. It is a feeling, a knowing beyond words, beyond language, the connection of oneness that we experience.  It is allowing these types of connections to affect you and bring you the closeness and intimacy that immerse us into the deep intentions of this community and attunement to Self. The sound of embracing this connection is silence, the ultimate reality. Silence is not an absence but a presence. It is simply there, and with it comes gratitude and a devotion to silence.

"I'm Deborah Roether Fallon, a devoted student of my guru, Acharya Shunya, and a member of her Vedic Study Circle. I'm currently studying and interpreting Karma Yoga with her and her team's guidance."

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