Silence

When you allow whatever arises to come into your mind, you see that all of it is impermanent. In that seeing, there is a letting go, and past the letting go is silence. A silent mind allows you to see impermanence even more clearly, which leads to more letting go, and in turn deeper penetration into silence. These two things feed each other, what I'm calling wisdom and what I'm calling silence. Each deepens the other.

It is true that on the threshold of silence we often experience fear. It is the ego that is afraid. In the panoramic attention required for choice-less awareness, the ego is not allowed to occupy center stage, where it thinks it belongs, and it begins to wonder what life will be like in silence, where it won't be present at all. This fear resembles the fear of death, because entering into silence is a temporary death for the ego. Naturally, it is afraid.

When this fear comes up, you shouldn't regard it as an obstacle or hindrance; it is just one more aspect of the noise. Your encounter with this fear is very valuable, and the skill called for is just to stay with it. In time, like every other phenomenon, it will pass away. When it does, all that will be left is silence.

—Larry Rosenberg, Breath by Breath