We live in a society of social connection - Facebook, Twitter... etc. So that even when we are by ourselves we are never truly alone. This weekend, we faced the challenged of practicing Mauna - taking a vow of of silence. The goal in doing this is to let the mind be still and prepare to look inward. In our normal day to day we do almost anything to avoid sitting quietly with ourselves - check the phone, double check the email, send a text... Our Mauna weekend did not allow us these easy outs.
Mauna is a practice of Brahmacharya - leading a life of pure thoughts, pure actions and pure aspirations. Compared to other practices of Brahmacharya (one being celebicy) I thought silence would be a piece of cake. I was mistaken. Our taining group of fifteen is an excitable, enthusiastic, open bunch of people. I love this about us but it proved to be our biggest obstacle - we like to ask questions, share personal insights and just 'chat'. It was the chatting that really did us in on the first day... someone would giggle or have a moment of speech and we would all feed off that verbal energy.
On day two, we were encouraged to really commit and practice total silence for the first block of five hours. This went much better but it was interesting to see how uncomfortable the silence made us. At first we made faces at each other or used gestures - generally making light of the situation. Eventually though, as the hours went by, we all really allowed ourselves the quiet time. During breaks, people meditated or practiced or just remained still in the silence. It felt good to not be idly speaking, to internalize the experiences of the day without having to talk everything out. All in all a very rewarding practice.
Want to give it a try? Find a few hours in your day where it is not neccessary for you to speak (a conference call at work would undo you, for example, but an afternoon home is totally doable). Mauna can be taken on a few different levels - you can simple not verbally commincate or you can go so far as to cut as much 'chatter' out of your day as possible... turn off the tv, avoid social-internet-land etc. Just be with yourself. Jai!
Mauna is a practice of Brahmacharya - leading a life of pure thoughts, pure actions and pure aspirations. Compared to other practices of Brahmacharya (one being celebicy) I thought silence would be a piece of cake. I was mistaken. Our taining group of fifteen is an excitable, enthusiastic, open bunch of people. I love this about us but it proved to be our biggest obstacle - we like to ask questions, share personal insights and just 'chat'. It was the chatting that really did us in on the first day... someone would giggle or have a moment of speech and we would all feed off that verbal energy.
On day two, we were encouraged to really commit and practice total silence for the first block of five hours. This went much better but it was interesting to see how uncomfortable the silence made us. At first we made faces at each other or used gestures - generally making light of the situation. Eventually though, as the hours went by, we all really allowed ourselves the quiet time. During breaks, people meditated or practiced or just remained still in the silence. It felt good to not be idly speaking, to internalize the experiences of the day without having to talk everything out. All in all a very rewarding practice.
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| Emphasis on the speak no evil. |
I love the drunken me in the background...
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