When I say “listening to silence”
Do you understand both sides of the practice ?
Without listening,
Even in the midst of the purest of all silences,
The encounter does not happen.
And if the finest listening applies to ambient noise,
To the lures, to the words, to the racket in your skull,
The encounter does not happen.
Listening to silence,
Is talking to God.
First, practice: “who is speaking ?”
Then, practice “to whom ?”
Listening to silence is to pray in truth.
Everything else: giggles, hare-brained ideas, rumors for nothing.
©FJ May 2022 —
Groupe de Pratique
Recueils — Participations
Merci à tous
Notes & Silence 
I think I have a grasp of this particular concept. When no-one speaks to nothing.
Finding a place that is quiet and then quieting the mind is an issue in these over-populated and hectic days, but not impossible. Indeed, some noise can be helpful The noise of the wind, or the sea, or the rain – not to be listened to, but to be listened through, to the greater silence.
Prayer? Truth?
The first is done with words at its most ephemeral. It is done consistently and seriously in manner of life. Silent communion is a rare phenomenon, I suspect.
Truth?
Hmm. I say no more.
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Thanks Simon for mentioning this : listening through the wind is a practice of silence.
Nature sounds cannot be counted as ‘noise’ , I do agree.
I could also add that to the available mind, even city noises and other civilisational material can be integrated and « listened through ».
This can be quite a challenge…I guess it depends on our saturation threshold, which is often defined by a moving context.
What I’ve never,( and probably never will) experienced as sound to listen through is the thumbing electronic bass sounds and kick from modern woofers and artificial bass drum sounds….
The way they physically infiltrate our system via our bone structures is a kind of control so powerful that it becomes impossible to have any kind of practice at all.
They act as inhibitors or practice.
If I were a conspiracy theorist, I’d say it is done on purpose.
But I’m not.
I trust people in charge of power, both political and religious, and most of all, I respect corporate leaders, and am convinced they ‘re doing everything they can to help us fight back any naughty condition we may have to face.
(Did you know that ?— I’ve just come across this information this very morning –one of the earliest origin for the word ‘CAPITAL’ is an ancient vernacular word from the French r, which spells, if I remember correctly as ‘captal’ , refering to « cheptel » = CATTLE.)
These sound-generated mind-jacking, would make a wonderful cattle management technique, don’t you think ?
We would place these cattle heads in dedicated places, call them ‘clubs’ instead of ‘barns’ and lure them in there with mating opportunities instead of metal fences…
A bit of social engineering would come to substitute for old fashioned blows from a stick.
Sorry, I’ve drifted away.
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I think you have decided to wander along some of your less serious meandering byeways…!
I quite understand.
Mind control is most effectively practiced through popular, and populist, media – be that news, entertainment, or incomprehensibly named « reality » shows, I think.
My father was a hi-fi enthusiast. He once played a vinyl recording of Wagner’s « Ride of the Valkyries » through a fairly expensive system involving pre and power amplifiers to a pair of electrostatic loudspeakers. I actually felt my sternum vibrate.
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This was certainly due to EFL (extremely low frequencies)
They do have the power to make our bones vibrate (and therefore use bone conduction properties to reach organs / certain frequencies reacting w/ certain organs through resonance effect (not sure of how to name it in English ‘Effet d’entrainement’, in French.
This mustn’t have had too serious a consequence when playing analogical music.
Things get a lot trickier when we consider the possibility to generate artificial (un-natural) frequencies (ELF) though electronic devices.
Technically, I think it does have the ability to set people in a pre defined mood,
Or foster a cognitive fog.
There is so much at stake when deciding what kind of music we are going to listen to.
Making people believe it wasn’t such a serious matter but something which has to do with ‘entertainment’ is a massive lie. (mass propaganda).
The closest word I have in French (sorry for calling in this barbarian language of mine so often) is entretenir. (= to maintain)
What is the state taht people have to be entretenus /’entertained » /maintained in ?
Baroque music, mainly
Chamber music,
This is sound investment
I suggest some Lute pieces by Bach or Vivaldi.
Still, there may be too much narration going on.
This might rob my attention.
Or some harpischord by PUrcell or Handel.
THis is massage for the brain ( I mean it literally)
I love Scarlatti’s works as well.
But Italians can be so chatty.
Silence, is always the surest bet, eventually.
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It was surprising in that electrostatics are, usually, credited for having too little bass. Much depends on how they are positioned, though.
I tend more to « folk » type music, and have wondered about trying to learn the mandolin or bouzouki when retirement beckons.
It matters little what is the state of entertainment, so long as there is distraction, I fear.
And I m happy to forgive your constant references to a dialect of Latin!!!!
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yes folk music is the best.
I felt like giving a shot at some cultivated references
And then I felt exhausted.
Been sleeping ever since.
This word, bouzouki, sounds way to close to bazooka to inspire confidance.
—
I just checked for a picture of the stringed equipment, I had never heard of it except in one of your previous comments (this is where all attempts at pulling out lofty references fizzle out )
The device looks rather harmless,
making it the perfect weapon for retirement.
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I believe there are two versions, both a form of lute. The Greek has a rounded back, the Irish is flat. I think they may be tuned differently.
It’ll likely be easier to find learning materials for the mandolin.
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