the power of silence
228 Words
Preface
This book is an account of a journey through the world of those who
value silence, and I began it expecting I knew not what. Certainly
not the richness and variety which I was led to discover. I say ‘led’
because that world inexorably drew me in, as if the process had a will
of its own quite apart from my own wishes.
Tapping rather uncertainly on all kinds of doors, trying to find my
bearings, to grope my way towards some understanding of what, in
truth, seemed like a rather nebulous subject, I constantly found new
worlds, new perspectives opening up before me.
It was the first time in a long experience of writing that I had
had the feeling of a subject taking me over, having its way with
me.
At the beginning, I never suspected just how rich, important and
fulfilling silence can be, how universal its usefulness. In places which
most of us initially associate with noise – the concert hall and the
theatre – I found musicians and actors only too ready to talk about
its value.
In India, which bids fair to be the world’s noisiest country, I found
a civilisation which still, amidst all the racket, reveres silence as the
very heart of spiritual life.
In America, I found a university which is based on the practise of
meditation.
- Writer
