Unlocking the Mysterious Benefits of Silence: A Buddhist Tale on the Power of Silence

There was a huge Hermitage of Gotham Buddha in a village. A famous Buddhist teacher lived there. One of his disciples used to speak a lot; he used to talk here and there all the time.

When he went to collect donations, he would bring a new story from every house and tell it to the other disciples of the ashram. He used to talk bad about one disciple to another, backbiting, and tried to be good in front of others. He used to praise himself from his own mouth and always tried to prove himself to be the most intelligent and best in front of the guru.

He considered himself different and superior to all the disciples. He said, "I am a child of a rich family; if I wanted, I could have lived a comfortable and facility-filled life. But I left all that and came here because I have to discover the truth, to know myself, to know life.

That's why my sacrifice is bigger than all of you. " One day, the guru called all the disciples of the ashram and said, "All of you have to take some resolution for the next one month. This will strengthen your determination and infuse self-power in you.

All of you can take any resolution according to your ability, and if any one of you breaks your resolution before one month, then he will return to his old routine. " All the disciples took big or small resolutions according to their power and went away after telling the guru about their resolutions. But the disciple who wanted to show himself as different and bigger went directly to the guru's cottage and said, "I do not want to take any small resolution, but I want to take a big and great resolution like myself.

Please tell me what resolution should be taken. " Hearing this, the guru smiled and said, "Will you be able to fulfill the resolution given by me? Will it be possible for you to complete it?

Probably not. That is not possible for you. You will not be able to complete it; that's why you yourself find a resolution.

" The disciple said, "No, Gurudev. Whatever resolution you give me, I will definitely fulfill it. " The master said, "Okay, then you will keep quiet for the next one month and won't even take a word out of your mouth.

This is your resolution. " The disciple said, "Gurudev, is this also a resolution? This is very easy.

Remain silent for a month; you give me some big resolution which is worthy of my ability, one that I have a problem fulfilling. " The guru said, "First, you fulfill this resolution and show it. " The disciple obeyed the guru and became silent at the same time.

He turned and went out of the hut. He found it much easier to remain silent. He spent one day silently, but from the second day, the burden of not speaking started increasing in his mind.

On the third day, he started feeling heaviness, and on the fourth day, he began feeling a strange uneasiness because all the disciples in the ashram were talking to each other. He also wanted to present his side in front of them. He wanted to stop speaking, but his resolve was coming in the way.

That's why he used to make only mouth gestures and eye movements the whole day. In this way, a few more days passed, and that disciple fell ill. His head was exploding; he didn't even feel like eating or drinking.

He just wanted to speak. He went to the guru and sat in front of him, writing, and told him, "Gurudev, I want to speak. I can't breathe without speaking; I am getting out of breath.

I am going insane inside. What should I do? Should I break my resolution?

" The guru smiled after reading this and said, "Resolutions are only meant to be broken, but the one who fulfills his resolution increases his inner strength. The one who increases his inner strength is on the path of society, and awakening grows further. Taking the resolution was also in your hands, and breaking it is also in your hands.

Many of your brothers have broken their resolve and returned to their old routine. If you are not able to do it, then you can also break your resolve and go back to your old routine. But remember, if you are not able to handle this small resolution today, then how will you be able to handle the rest of your life?

The rest of the decision is entirely in your hands. " This talk of the guru hurt the heart of that disciple. He went back without saying anything and locked himself in his hut.

He used to come out of the hut only for his essential works and would sit inside the hut all the rest of the time. Fifteen days had passed, and the resolve of almost all the disciples of the ashram had been broken by now, but his resolve was still on. After taking the resolution, he had not uttered a single word.

The whole ashram was surprised at how a person who spoke so much had become silent. After fifteen days, he again went to his guru and told him in writing, "Gurudev, I am silent from outside, but there are many voices inside me. There is a lot of whining and complaining.

I keep talking inside; my mind keeps asking all kinds of questions. The more silent I am from outside, the more noisy I am from within. Is my resolve still in this way?

" The guru said, "Yes, your resolution is still ongoing. But as long as these voices of people keep falling in your ears, your mind will keep on speaking because it has a habit of speaking. You may be silent on the outside, but you will be speaking on the inside.

You have to go away from these things and these voices. " The disciple went from there after saluting the guru. He left his hut in the morning and went towards the forest.

Many days passed, and the time of resolution was also completed, but the disciple did not return. Everyone in the ashram was afraid that something. .

. Wild animals might have eaten him. Meanwhile, many efforts were made to find him, but he was nowhere to be found.

All the guru brothers had assumed that the wild animals had made him their prey, but the guru did not think so. One day, another disciple of the ashram came to the guru and said, "Gurudev, what must have happened to that talkative brother of ours? Would the animal have killed him?

" The guru said, "The animals may have made him their prey, but there could be another reason for his non-return. Maybe he got what he went for. " Then the disciple asked, "Gurudev, is it so harmful to speak too much?

" The guru said, "One of the many miseries of a man's life is that he can never remain silent. He always keeps on saying something or the other. More than half of our miseries arise just because of our speaking.

The reason for most of the quarrels in the family is our meaningless speaking. None of us wants to be silent; we just want to listen to the other person. Whatever is in our mind, we want to take it out and put it in his mind.

We want to make him understand that, 'Look, you are wrong, and I am right. ' In this way, everyone is taking rotten streets from each other. This work of listening and narrating continues throughout life, but in this ignorance, we lose our time, our life, our understanding, and most importantly, the precious moments which can be lived, experienced, and enjoyed.

But what do we get in return? Nothing. Everything becomes futile and wasted.

Only a few people realize what we have lost in this madness. Just as other people do not know about their arrival, similarly, they do not know about their departure. " The disciple said, "Then what is the solution?

" "This is the only way: to watch your thoughts with full awareness," said the guru. "Contemplating all mental problems by staying in the present and doing your work with full awareness brings miraculous changes in life. " After that, after getting answers to his questions from the disciple, he bowed down to him and went away from there.

Three months had passed since that disciple had left the ashram, but there was no news of him until now. All the guru brothers had also given up the hope of his return, but one day he returned to the ashram. Everyone's surprise and happiness knew no bounds upon seeing him, but now he was not the one who left.

He came back as something else. A wonderful change could be felt in him; there was an amazing calmness on his face and great peace in his eyes. As soon as he came to the ashram, all the guru brothers surrounded him from all sides and started talking.

He also started talking to his guru brothers. Everyone who talked to him felt that he was no longer as impatient and talkative as before. Each and every word came out of his mouth very smoothly and sweetly.

After talking to the guru brothers for a while, he went straight towards the guru. He touched the guru's feet and said, "Gurudev, am I still silent? Is my resolution still on?

" The guru looked very carefully into the disciple's eyes for some time and said, "Yes, you are still silent. Not a single word is coming out of your mouth, and your resolution is still on. " The disciple said, "Gurudev, when I left the ashram, I was silent with my mouth, but there were many voices inside me.

There were many questions in my mind, and they were not stopping. So I went to the forest, hoping that there I would find peace and that the chatter of my mind would subside. But the more I went into solitude, the louder the voice inside me grew.

I started hearing the old voice inside me. Only then did I realize how wrong I was when I used to say bad things to my family, friends, and guru brothers. At that time, I used to feel that I was saying the right thing, even when I used to backbite and make fun of the guru brothers.

I used to feel that I was better than them, yes, and I was doing right. But that day I realized for the first time how wrong I used to speak. For a long time, these voices, these complaints, kept going on inside me, but gradually, one day, all these voices finished from inside me.

Now I have become silent from the inside also. In that dense forest, there was no one to speak from outside, and there was no sound left inside. I understood the true meaning of silence for the first time that day.

There was peace all around me. Although there were still some voices coming, which used to come before, I could not hear them. But now I could hear all those voices clearly: the sound of the wind blowing, the sound of birds chirping, and the sound of flowing water.

I heard all these voices for the first time with full consciousness. I had never felt so much peace around me before. So to disturb this peace for the first time, I took any word out of my mouth.

I shouted, "Oh God, what kind of peace is this? Why is everything so quiet? What happened?

" But even after my shouting, the peace was not disturbed; everything was as calm as before, outside as well as inside. "Hey Gurudev, I talked to my guru brothers. I talked to you.

I am speaking; I am walking; I'm watching everything, but I am completely alone inside. I am in silence. I am in a crowd, yet I am alone in solitude.

Even when I want to make noise within myself, I am still in solitude. Now everything is visible; everything has started to be heard. " The guru said, "As long as we keep speaking on the outside, there will be unrest inside.

But the day we turn inward, then whatever comes out of our mouth, we will remain calm. Most of the evil in the world stems from our speaking, because we don't want to. " Be silent.

We talk more than we need to. We do not want to listen to the person in front of us; rather, we want to stop him from speaking, want to make him understand who I am, what I can do, and this remains the purpose of our life. All our energy goes on getting wasted in talking in vain.

In such a society, the life of people is filled with sorrows. They are always engaged in telling each other, never wanting to listen to each other, never wanting to understand, and they have never learned to be silent because being silent makes them feel small. The reason for all the battles in the world is our speaking; that's why we should speak only as much as necessary.

Talking unnecessarily is a waste of energy, and this speaking never lets us go back inward because it keeps pulling us outwards. And what is out there in this world, except. .

. But if you want to turn towards your inner world, then this mouth must be kept closed. That's why all the Buddhas who became enlightened, all of them, ran towards solitude so that they would not have to speak much; they would not have to listen much.

They remained in solitude and remained calm. That's why you can easily travel inside. But if someone wants, he can live in solitude even while living in this world; he can remain calm.

But for this, he has to save his energy, which he was till now wasting in his meaningless words. The lesson of this story is that speaking in vain is a waste of energy. Talking too much and unnecessarily does not allow us to return inward because it keeps us bent outwards.

And those who have to travel inward must keep their mouth shut. I hope you enjoyed this story and learned a lot. You can tell us your thoughts about the story by commenting in the box below.

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