Karmic Muscle Group: Discipline & Awareness
Today’s Exercise: Take A Vow Of Silence
[Preparation: you are going to need to figure out an hour of the day that works for this exercise. If you have a job that requires you to communicate verbally, it would not be proper for your to do this exercise at work. If it can be done, however, you want to do this exercise when you are around a lot of people. By the way, you cannot write or text during this exercise. You can gesture. What makes it powerful is the numerous opportunities to practice silence in a world full of people who rarely shut up.]
- Pick an hour out of your day when you will be around people, but it will not be harmful for you to remain absolutely silent. Sitting in church or in a library does not count.
- Prepare a note that says, “I have taken a vow of silence for one hour. I cannot speak – but you can. ” You will need this to explain to people what is going on. Make this note ahead of time so that you do not break your vow by writing later.
- Calm your mind and think about an hour of no talking. Visualize yourself remaining silent.
- Promise yourself that your vow begins at your chosen time and when that moment comes, your last words should “on my life, these are the last words that I shall speak for [an hour]” .
- Do not speak even if you are provoked by mischievous friends. This exercise is about discipline and how easily your discipline can be usurped. [hr]
Training Note:
You might have a million and one reasons why you cannot do this exercise — all the more reason you should do it. This is not as easy as it looks. You must undertake this exercise inside of respect for your promises and obligations in the world. If you are a radio announcer, do not do this exercise at work. Everyone, however has an hour when they are around people where they can take a vow of silence. Put your friends and family on notice that you are doing this, but do not go into seclusion. The point of the exercise is to be with people without talking. It is about discipline and the psychological effects of remaining silent. You will learn nothing if you do this exercise when you are asleep.[hr]
Karmic Benefits:
- Your Words Are Not As Important As You Think They Are: when we stop talking we realize rather quickly that most of what comes out of our mouths is pretty unimportant. In fact, it will probably take the world around you some time to figure out that you have even taken a vow of silence. Aside from a few moments of curiosity, most of the people in your world will not have a huge problem with your silence. You might even start to make it a regular periodic practice.
- Shut Up And Listen: in the talking world not much listening happens. We pause our speaking often only to take a breath or to figure out what we are going to say next. When we stop the chatter, everything else in the world has the opportunity to show up in the space that our silence creates.
- Silence Speaks Louder Than Shouting: when we do not talk, it is startling to others. They actually pay more attention to us than when we banter back and forth in common conversation. What becomes possible in communication when you do not use word? The more you engage others in silence, the more aware of them you become, but also, the more aware of you they become.[hr]
Bonus Workout: Do the exercise for an entire weekend.
Share Your Experience:
Leave a comment when you have completed the exercise.
