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Sound and Silence

\\\"Music invents silence\\\" Octavio Paz from the poem On Reading John Cage 1

This morning, like many mornings I sang as part of a sound practice. Most often I chant mantras but this morning I sang Leonard Cohen\\\'s Hallelujah, for me a hymn of transcendence. After I sang I sat in silence, allowing a rich deep dark silence to fill me. I believe we sing, sound, play instruments, and need a rich tapestry of sound to quiet the mind and enter into a meditative state where we can hear more clearly the wisdom of guidance.

After listening deeply I toned. The silence gave birth to sound. I remembered writing about this experience in my first book Song and Silence: Voicing the Soul which I share with you now:

\\\"All song arises out of this empty place, an emptiness full of what nourishes true song-- the source of all sounds, out of which all things are created. Listening to silence brings forth the radiance of song. The presence of silence enters with the breath. On breath, song gives radiance to its origins. To allow the breath of life to move through one\\\'s being, one\\\'s cell structure, awakens new possibilities of engaging each moment.\\\"2

I invite you to share your own moments of sound and silence.

1. Octavio Paz, Selected Poems, New Directions,New York, 1979, p. 65.

2. Susan Elizabeth Hale, Song and Silence: Voicing the Soul, La Alameda Press, Albuquerque, New Mexico, 1995, p.40.


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