I was 9 years old when I had my first spiritual awakening, my first glimpse of wholeness with Existence, my first taste of the language of silence, says spiritual teacher and best-selling author Swami Dhyan Giten in this books. This created a deep thirst and longing in his heart and being to return to this natural and effortless experience of being one with the Whole.
I have always had the capacity to go within myself and to discover the silence within, the inner meditative quality, the inner source of love and truth, the inner language of silence, Giten explains in this book. Now I also notice that this silence is going deeper, and that I go beyond the ego and disappear into the silence.
This book consists of a collection of quotes from Swami Dhyan Giten on silence. It also explains how silence is the flower and love and wholeness are the fragrance.
Swami Dhyan Giten has dedicated his life to teach the art of awareness and meditation. He conducts individual consultations, seminars and courses internationally. His quotes, articles and books has touched the hearts of thousands and are appearing with increasing frequency in magazines, blogs and websites.
"Swami Dhyan Giten's "The Language of Silence -- From Darkness to Light" reminds me of those moments when we drift back from sleep to wakefulness and the precious insights that quite often occur in those instants of "awakening. Giten's "The Language of Silence" is a beautifully expressed and highly intimate picture of his own spiritual history. Giten offers us a quite intimate connection with his inner being and thus a glimpse of the beauty within ourselves." From the foreword by Eric Rolf, author of "Soul Medicine".
Excerpt:
1. Being One with the Whole
I was 9 years old when I had my first glimpse of wholeness. It was early Christmas morning and I was standing in my pyjamas in the living room and looked out of the large windows. Outside the white snowflakes silently singled down toward a snow clad landscape. Suddenly I was filled with a feeling of being one with the slowly dancing snowflakes, one with the silent landscape.
I did not understand then that this was my first taste of meditation, but it created a deep thirst and a longing in my heart to return to this natural and effortless experience of being one with the Whole.
2. Divine Unsatisfaction
I remember an insight that taught me much about life. One day I felt that I had everything that I really wanted in life. I had a creative and meaningful work as a therapist and course leader, I had a relationship with a beautiful woman, who I loved and who loved me, I had friend that I trusted and I had money to do what I wanted.
But in spite of all this, I still had a feeling that there was something missing in my life. I was not satisfied. The thirst and longing in my heart was still searching for something more. It made me realize that the deepest pain in my heart was that I was still separated from the Whole and that no outer things or relationships could ease this pain.
3. Enlightenment
When I did a therapist education in USA 1984, one of the course leaders – who had given personal and spiritual guidance to thousands of seekers of truth from all over the world, and who I consider to be one of the best spiritual therapists in the world – said that I was going to get enlightened, that I would “disappear into the silence”.
I did not really understand what he meant then, and it was totally absurd for me when other course participants congratulated me afterwards. The thought that I was going to be enlightened was totally absurd for me. For me enlightenment was something that happened to special and chosen persons like Osho, Buddha, Jesus, Lao-Tzu and Krishnamurti. I did not feel either special or chosen. I did not feel worthy of being enlightened.
4. Being One with Nature, One with the Trees and One with the people
I had a magical day during one Sunday when I walked out in nature. On the outside this day only consisted of taking a walk out in the beautiful sunny weather and cleaning my apartment, but on the inside everything suddenly changed. When I walked out in nature in the sunny weather, a silent explosion suddenly happened within me and my whole perception of reality changed.
In a single moment, everything had changed, although nothing on the outside had really changed. Everything on the outside was exactly as before, but my way of seeing had changed. The difference was that before I did not see and now I could see. My eyes were open. Suddenly I was one with everything, one with the stones, one with the trees and one with the people that I meet on my walk.
My heart danced with joy together with a feeling of: “I am God”. Not that I am the creator of everything, but that I am part of the Whole, part of the divine. It felt like coming home, that Existence is my home. I also saw that even if the people that I meet did not understand that they are a part of the Whole, they still are a part of the Whole. I felt the waves of Existence in my own heart and being and I felt like a small wave in a great ocean. It gave a taste of the eternal, a taste of the limitless and boundless source of creativity. In just a few moments, I learnt more than during 20 years in university.