Silence is therefore much more of course than the absence of noise and even more than the absence of thoughts. Perhaps we’ve all had a little taste, however brief, of being able to be without thoughts, but to be aware is not that unusual, for a moment even or a few moments, that I had no thoughts – the sky is very blue, there are no clouds in it at all. But silence is deeper than that, because the thought ‘I had no thoughts’ is a thought; it is still selfconsciousness. So silence, Ramana Maharshi puts this very clearly, is when the ‘“I” thought does not arise’ – there is no external witness, observer. And this I think is what Jesus is pointing to when he tells us to leave self behind and all our possessions, and to enter into that poverty of spirit which we enter into through the mantra, and by living out the consequences of saying the mantra at the centre of our being. ‘The sparkling of truth devoid of “I” is the greatest austerity.’
When there is no external witness
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