More on the theme of letting go.
Choose silence, and love is apparent
When we choose silence, we choose to give up the reasons not to love, which are the reasons for going to war, or continuing war, or separating, or being a victim, or being right. In a moment of silence, in a moment of no thought, no mind, we choose to give those up. This is what my teacher invited me to.
Just choose silence. Don’t even choose love. Choose silence, and love is apparent. If we choose love we already have an idea of what love is.
But if you choose silence, that is the end of ideas. You are willing to have no idea, to see what is present when there is no idea, past, present, future. No idea of love, no idea of truth, no idea of you, no idea of me. Love is apparent.
— Gangaji
— Gangaji
Choose silence, and love is apparent
In love with these words. Had the luck of stumbling upon in the ps4 game “The Witness”.
🙂
Am not familiar with the game but it is curious where inspiration comes from, Jack.
Prior to waking up, these words are important. It’s not about our ideas or even experiences. It’s about silence, pure being.
After the shift, things change as silence is then established. Love can then flower like never before…
Hello Davidya.
Just like Jack, I come here from The Witness. The inspiration to use it in the game is a mystery for us equally, but maybe I can provide some kind of answer for You.
The Witness is a relaxing game where you solve puzzles in one of the most amazing game environments I’ve experienced, an island filled with beauty in many different biomes and themes. In these biomes, or levels should I say, there’s hidden another type of mystery: audio logs. Now, these audio logs contain quotes from philosophers, theologists, scientists, teachers, leaders, writers; from poems, scripture, scientific papers.. which may or may not have something obvious meaning regarding the level or situation you are in.
In Choose silence’s case, it is found in a tree house biome. Understanding this recording isn’t required to go forwards in the game, but I think is just meant to make you think. Or maybe it’s to contribute to the game’s relaxing yet mysterious atmosphere.
If you’d start analyzing, you could draw lines between your childhood treehouse, your own silent space, up in the trees where no worry troubles you, something like that. As such it would fit the situation.
Or maybe there’s a hidden puzzle that requires you to use silence to listen carefully for clues since there are audio puzzles in the game as well (google red door puzzle, it’s pretty hardcore).
What ever it is, I’m glad they put it there as it touched me greatly, so much that I came to find it again.
Cheers.
Thanks, Johannes
Fascinating that someone has structured this into a video game. Most entertainment is designed to be a distraction, not a self-exploration.
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Still, true silence and the corresponding witness or observer mode is best cultured through transcendence of experiences such as in an effortless meditation. Experiences can inspire us and fascinate the mind but that’s not going to culture the witness itself.
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At one time, I explored doing a film on the subtle nature of reality. Give people some experience of it. But then I realized a second-hand experience was not it, nor was access to it through having experiences.
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Still, it can be fun to explore. Thanks for sharing.
🙂
Hey Davidya,
Do you perhaps know the origin of this quote (a specific video, podcast…) since I’m compiling a list of all quote sources from The Witness and this one seems to be the only one that’s not from a book, so I’m having trouble finding it.
Thanks in advance and love your blog, I’ll be keeping an eye on it!
Hi Stefan
I saw her a few times in person at the time, but it’s most likely from a newsletter as the post isn’t saved as a file (which I would have done then if transcribing).
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My Gangaji newsletter archive only goes back to 2011 but it’s likely it would have been an issue shortly before this date. Sorry I couldn’t help further. I was less fussy about references then.