Experience has shown that this is just great, although difficult and unusual. Now I'll tell you in detail.
I warn you: here are only the results of a week of practice of silence.
You may have heard of a Buddhist practice called vipasana - silence meditation. It is quite popular now, and you don't have to be a Buddhist to do it. The bottom line is to adhere to a very strict ascetic lifestyle for a certain period of time, get up early, eat only vegetarian food, meditate for several hours a day and protect yourself from all contact with information from the outside: do not communicate with people, do not use the phone and the Internet (and even - oh, horror! - social networks), do not read books. The only exceptions are reading religious literature (for example, on how to meditate properly) and talking with monks.
While traveling in Thailand, I found the Wat Pa Tam Wua forest monastery. It accepts everyone who wants to undergo the practice of meditation in silence, for any period, even for 1 day, even for a month. The regime there is relatively free - you are solely responsible for observing the principles of vipasana.
I had 6 days left. As a result, I felt like a new person.
Every day is scheduled from early morning until late evening, the bulk of the time is occupied by meditation and general volunteer work - cleaning the territory, maintaining order in general.
Highlights: self-observation
Promotional video:
The first couple of days were pretty easy. I am not a very talkative person and usually I do not suffer if I am left without an interlocutor for a while or when I go somewhere alone. But I haven’t tried before to deliberately limit myself in communicating with people who are around a lot, from different parts of the world, and even so that I do not speak at all, do not even throw everyday phrases like “good morning” and “thank you”.
A very strange feeling. The brain starts to work differently. When you don't say or ask anything, thinking seems to become more independent and autonomous. You see that you need help - you provide this help. Without requests or instructions, you just do something. You analyze yourself, what else would be useful.
At the same time, some crazy radio of completely random thoughts and memories is constantly playing in my head. Sometimes it comes out that my mother does not grieve. Especially in the process of meditation. It sounds like this:
- The leg is numb.
- The sun is baking. Oh, a cold breeze blew. Nicely.
- I concentrate on my breathing. Inhale, exhale.
- I missed my parents!
- It seems like a mosquito is biting my hand.
- White roses, white roses, thorns defenseless …
- Inhale, exhale.
- Oh, have you forgotten the name of this monastery?
- The breakfast was delicious. What was mixed there? Pumpkin? Unclear…
- Concentrate on your breathing! Inhale, exhale …
In general, some kind of big top show.
Sometimes it turns into hell, and the stream of thoughts is incredibly tiring, begins to enrage. You try to control them, stop them, direct them to a calmer channel - with varying degrees of success, but after a couple of days their intensity and pressure subsides. It gets easier. Clarity of mind appears, it is easier to concentrate on the meditation process. You begin to feel and understand your body better. For example, I felt in which muscles I have the strongest blocks and clamps - they are the most difficult to relax, and they automatically tense themselves out of many years of habit. In my case, this is the shoulders and stomach.
On about the fourth or fifth day, meditation becomes much deeper, you don't notice how an hour passes, and it already seems to be insufficient. And in the first days you sit and suffer in an uncomfortable position, counting down the minutes, when at last the desired monk's voice will sound, announcing the end!
After a week of practice of silence, I left the monastery and felt amazing changes, on the verge of mysticism.
Everything around is as if created for pacification.
First, I didn't even feel like talking. There was no this itchy desire to chat with someone, as in the early days. There was a strong feeling that everything was clear anyway, and there was no need to shake this beautiful world with unnecessary words unnecessarily. Secondly, the mind became very clear. Decisions are made easier because you better understand yourself and your real desires.
You become kinder and more smiling. Softer towards people.
And what is most interesting is that you look at other people and you understand them better, you grasp more subtly what they feel, even as if you are reading their thoughts. A person's facial expressions, wrinkles, folds, eye glitter, or lack thereof, provide colossal information that is usually not captured so clearly.
In the soul and head - calmness and clarity. Vanity, anxiety and nervousness are gone, the crazy radio does not bother.
I think that everyone needs to try this practice at least once!
You don't need to go to Thailand for it, in Russia there are now enough centers that accept everyone free of charge. Probably, this is comparable to fasting in Orthodoxy, only short-term and even more severe. Cleans and illuminates.