When Buddha got enlightened on that full moon day in the month of May, he kept silent. For a whole week he did not say a word. The mythology says that all the angels in the heaven got frightened and said, “Once in a millennium someone blossoms so fully like Buddha. The angels approached Buddha and asked him to say something. He said,“ One who has not tasted the ambrosia of existence, of life, there is no point in talking to them about it. So I am silent.
How can you convey something so intimate, something so personal? Words cannot. Many scriptures in the past have declared, “Words end where truth begins”.
Silence is the source of life and cure for diseases. Space and silence are synonymous.sBuddha was the manifestation of silence. His silence came from the saturation, not from the lack. Lack creates complaints and noise, saturation brings silence. Look at the noise in your mind, What is it all about? More money, more fame, more recognition, fulfillment, relationships? The noise is about something. Silence is about nothing. Silence is the basis; noise is the surface, the outer. Noise indicates lack, need want. Buddha’s l;ife was not lack, need or want. From the every beginning of his life he lived a very saturated, wealthy life. Any pleasure he wanted would be at his feet the moment he wanted it. Gautama, Siddhartha lived such a life, and you would wonder how a person of such pleasure and luxury could talk about sorrow.
One has to experience sadness, sorrow, misery in the world in order to speak about it. Buddha said the first principle, the first truth he discovered was – there is sorrow. Because he was so saturated in the sensual pleasures from outside, there was nothing for him, because everything was already there. You don’t go on desiring for something which is already there. He was silent from the very beginning because there was saturation.
Just a glimpse of misery was good enough for Buddha to start a journey of inquiry. Buddha set out in a quest of truth, all by himself, leaving the palace, his wife and son. The stronger the silence, the more powerful will be the questions that arise from such a silence. Nothing could stop him, so he escaped. For many years he searched.
In life there are only two possibilities to learn. One is to observe the world around us and to know from others suffering and others futile exercises that this is a waste, or in your own experience you go through it and then you’ll find it is misery. There is no third possibility.
The more sensitive you are, you won’t need to go through all the misery by yourself. You can look at those who are going through it and become wise. If that is not possible, never mind, you’ll go through it. You will come out of it and become more wise. Life is immortal. There is misery, you cannot deny that, and there is a cause for misery, this is the second truth.
The third truth he says, “ It is possible to eliminate misery”. If misery was your nature, you could not eliminate it, but this is not the case. “There is the possibility to be out of the misery”. The path he described was eightfold. The path of right practice, right meditation, the right equanimity, the right vision, the right type of samadhi, the right kind of silence. Not the silence of mourning, not the silence of anger or hatred, but the right type of silence.
Right mindfulness can root out misery in our lives. This can break patterns that we live with. Silence breaks the pattern. It is built in our nature , in our system. Otherwise you feel happy or miserable, you link that feeling to something outside yourself. Then the wheel starts rolling, the reaction, the chain of reaction starts happening. You hold something else responsible for your misery or your happiness, someone else is responsible. Buddha said,” No, “ just observe the sensations.”
What is true nature? It is peace, compassion, it is love, friendliness, it is joy. Silence gives birthto all this. Silence swallows the sadness, guilt, misery and gives birth to joy compassion and love. That is exactly what the life of Buddha was. He took away misery, the guilt, the fear, the arrogance, the ignorance and brought back wisdom, strength, beauty, knowledge and peace.