yoga meditation and philosophy with Lynn Fraser
in the Himalayan Tradition of H.H. Sri Swami Rama

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Silence – Save Your Breath and Live Longer!

“Silence is the practice of the science of self-healing even if one is not impelled by a strong spiritual urge. Let us look at it this way. What is speech, physically speaking ?  Place your open palm in front of the lips and speak a few sentences. You will find that speech comes in the form of erratic bursts of breath. Speech is jerky breath. It means that when we speak our entire internal system is being jerked, the lungs, the heart, the blood pressure, navel centre, and diaphragm muscle (the chief breathing organ of the body), not to speak of the mind itself. Quite rightly, then, when we want someone to stop talking we say in English : Save your breath ! Don’t waste your breath!

 Silence is the art of longevity. The human life span is not measured in years; it is measured in the number of breaths allotted karmically. How long would one live? It all depends on how quickly, by fast and jerky breathing, one may choose to spend out one’s allotment. Or one may spend it slowly and invest a major portion to cultivate even a deeper silence, to have yet more to invest.” Swami Veda Bharati

Click here for the rest of the article and silence retreat information.

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“As our meditation practice deepens, we are much less caught in words. Capable of practicing silence, we are free as a bird, in touch with the essence of things…. To practice mindfulness of speech, sometimes we have to practice silence.  Then we can look deeply to see what our views are and what internal knots give rise to our thinking. Silence is a time for looking deeply.

“..If we listen out of the silence of our mind, every bird’s song and every whistling of the pine trees in the wind will speak to us.  In the Sukhavit Sutra, it is said that every time the wind blows through the jewelled trees, a miracle is produced.  If we listen carefully, we will hear the Buddha teaching the Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path.  Mindfulness helps us slow down and listen to each word from the birds, the trees, and our own mind and speech.” ~Thich Nhat Hanh

Today I will listen more deeply to the mockingbird’s song, the “wind blowing through the jewelled trees”  – to my own breath, and therein will be the miracle.


Thich Nhat Hanh’s quote from the book, “The Heart of The Buddha’s
Teachings,” published by Parallax Press.