BUT MY EYES STILL SEE

(Old adage / Name of a 1967 hit song by The Tremeloes)

John Fraim

In the late 70s, I became close friends with the minister of our church when he Baptized my first son. He was a graduate of the Princeton Theological Seminary and was going through a divorce. We had an extra room in our Oakland home and asked him and his son Johnny to stay with us through the divorce. Sometime during this time, Jeff invited me to a retreat where everyone took a vow of silence during the entire time there. It was three days and somewhere on the coast of California. 

For some reason, the event never happened. But I still wonder what would have happened if I attended the event with my friend Jeff. Or, for that matter, any event that required silence during the event. 

In our age of the constant “noise” of news and information and media, it seems that silence or avoidance of any new info is an interesting, unusual strategy. Some groups and people are practicing the art of silence more and more today. As I go through my emails and all my free Substack subscriptions, I think that silence is more important than ever today. The emails beg answering by waving “headline copy” advertising in front of me by recently I’ve been deleting mass emails at a time. 

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Of course, there is the myth that information will set us free. The reality is that we’re over-loaded with information and more enslaved by it than any time in history. In effect, the information (digital world) distracts from silence and reflection about the world. It places the digital “noise” of image and sound in the place of silence. The “digital” noise and not even human person-to-person interaction.

One of the great dynamics of America is that it has gone from mass to segmented culture and this postmodern segmentation is being used more and more for political control. It used to be that propaganda was involved with a message or content. Now – with all the information and noise of digital media distracting from personal thought – it no longer matters the content of the messages. Distraction from considering the context of the one’s world is provided each day in thousands of messages and tempting rabbit holes to jump down. 

Reflection and silence are needed to put pieces of our increasingly information segmented world again. To move towards the spirit in oneself. More information means more arguments and views of reality. All of these, distracting the individual from reflecting or thinking about their own life. In effect, putting all the information content/messages into a larger context/medium. 

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As I’ve argued in my book Battle of Symbols: Global Dynamics of Advertising, Entertainment and Media (Daimon Verlag, Zurich, 2003), Western culture is more analytical and focused on content while the Eastern culture expands outward to the context of a situation. The male and female archetypes on a global scale one might say.

Yet what of the incredible immigration in recent years of eastern culture into American culture. Some argue the world is becoming more global. But perhaps there is an evolving new hybrid of east and west cultures, feminine and masculine, Democrat and Republican Parties. America is the new testing ground for this new type of culture.

That demands its own silence and reflection.

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Before anything truly new and original can be decided on, I think it’s first of all most important to realize/believe the digital always world leads away from the human/spiritual world. In effect, it leads away from the quiet, reflectiveness of the individual psyche. The digital world of the “noise” of our modern digital culture’s distraction. The most noise in the information of sounds and images and narrative lines. Some repeated so often on TV advertising to become almost hypnotic.

For example, the endless pharmaceutical commercials. Only allowed in American and New Zealand in all nations of the globe. Many of us can hum the lyrics to them. Everyone seems so excited in the commercials of gorgeous colors and Broadway type dancers, enjoying their disease, their life change by the “BIG STORY TO TELL” for the first type 2 diabetes medication proven to go beyond lowering A1C to reduce the risk of cardiovascular (CV) death for adults who have type 2 diabetes and known heart disease. It is not for use to lower blood sugar in people with type 1 diabetes.the little pill.

I think we need more options for silence and reflection in order to create something truly new and original. And, connection to a community out there today attempting to move away from digital culture. Thought developed away from the currents and distractions of the everyday chatter of noise.

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Silence is Golden / Lyrics

Oh don’t it hurt deep inside
To see someone do something to her
Oh don’t it pain to see someone cry
How especially if that someone is her

Silence is golden
But my eyes still see
Silence is golden, golden
But my eyes still see

Talking is cheap people follow like sheep
Even though there is no where to go
How could she tell he deceived her so well
Pity she’ll be the last one to know

Silence is golden
But my eyes still see
Silence is golden, golden
But my eyes still see

How many times will she fall for his lines
Should I tell her or should I be cool
And if I tried I know she’d say I lied
Mind your business don’t hurt her you fool

Silence is golden
But my eyes still see
Silence is golden, golden
But my eyes still see
But my eyes still see
But my eyes still see

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From a Poster on Quora

I attended a ten-day vipassana meditation program in Dhamma Thali -Jaipur. It has rules of observation of total silence, which essentially means,

1. No phone.
2. No music or no listening except the meditation instructions.
3. The total absence of speech. One can only ask questions related to the practice of meditation in the individual session which lasts for hardly a minute.
4. Can’t read, write or sing a song, even in isolation.
5. One is not supposed to leave the course in between and visitors are not allowed.
6. To survive for ten days with small meals, that doesn’t include dinner.

The mediation is about observing the breath and sensations in the body with equanimity and detachment. I was required to sit for 10 – 11 hours in a cross-legged position with a group of fellow meditators.

During the first two days, unexpectedly, I didn’t feel the need to talk to someone. The mental makeup and energy from observing my breath were fully engrossing. After a couple of days

1. The inner dialogue became loud. Images of past, regrets, insults, achievements, and all sorts of old memories kept on coming back.
2. On the 3rd and 4th day, I started to feel the need to go out and share the experience and knowledge that I have gained from the meditation.
3. 5th day onwards there was a distance between me and my thoughts. I mean they did not have the energy to be with me for a longer period or get the same involvement from my side.
4. After the 7th day, I wanted to cry, tears will roll out without control and will run down over my cheeks to drop off from the chin.
5. The Ego- Self became subtly more powerful. I tend to get complacent for being able to sit silently for 10 minutes or would reprimand myself for failing in my pursuit.
6. The craving for food diminished, the need for food was substantially lowered. Even if given a choice of sumptuous dinner I would walk out without flinching an eyelid. I am a foodie so it was a remarkable turnaround.
7. I would fall asleep within no time of lying on the bed. The quality of sleep was something that I had seldom experienced before.
8. The meditation centre is in the foothills of Aravali hills and is surrounded by forests. During my strolls or while going to the meditation centre from my room I would observe the trees, the birds and monkeys, and the vibrant colours of nature. It will fill me with a kind of sublime joy.
9. On the 10th day, I was allowed to talk to fellow meditators outside of the hall. But I had no interest to speak and was too content within myself.

As my chitter-chatter diminished, I became sensitive to all sounds around me. There was a sense of contentment that was not dependent on any worldly achievement or approvals. I was also afraid that within few hours or so I will have to return to old ways.

Spiritually, I can put my experience of silence in one sentence – I got to an understanding of the working of my mind, it’s a reaction on my body and the distance that I have to my thoughts.

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Finding a Quiet Space