I don’t want to break that implicit promise made to the readers of La Livella Magazine:., and for this reason I won’t add any words about this fragile and difficult historical moment, because beyond any reasonable doubt I don’t possess that Truth – and I invite any genteel human being who does have it, to come forward – which would be worth giving a deep and true meaning to what is happening.
Hence, in the life of every human being, there are moments in which there is nothing left but silence. Because everything we consider worthy of our attention makes us dumb and attentive, diligent and open to what stands out, even metaphysically, in front of us.
Silence is present as a discipline in all traditions, “be silent in yourself, and listen” is the first teaching of the Buddha; and similarly, in Western philosophy “Silence is the language of all strong passions, of love (even in sweet moments) of anger, of wonder, of fear etc.” – Giacomo Leopardi, Zibaldone.
To give an image, it is as if all the living beings, having realized their weight on the world, decided at a given hour of a given day to jump all together, thus giving the earth’s soil a second of relief.
It is as if all living beings, having realised how much their weight burdens the world, decided, at a given hour of a given day, to jump all together. Therefore, giving the Earth’s soil a second of relief.
We are dismayed by a oppressive background noise and the mind is the first deafening receptacle that we must try to hold back; a contraction by virtue of a greater freedom that comes from listening. The thought, left to its natural disposition, needs time and even though we have been granted a greater dose of it in recent times, that embarrassing chatter worthy of the worst of romantic date has still manifested.
So, once we have remained silent, what should we listen to?
Well above the chirping and crackling there is the meditative space of thought as self-thinking, that is, thought that thinks itself and that generates a separation between the subjective and the external happening.
I believe that this ancient practice can provide, not just the individual wellbeing, but in collective terms it also has a balmy power. Not because we are to hide in it, but mainly because jabbering is a very dismal form of fashion.
Let us imagine that it is as if all living beings, having realised how much their weight burdens the world, decided, at a given hour of a given day, to jump all together. Therefore, giving the Earth’s soil a second of relief.
Having, therefore, balanced the books, distributed the loaves and fishes; on this 1st of January 2021, this Director proposes to refrain from speaking for the purpose of filling the void, and rather embrace it by granting that virtual space, an unexpected moment – but ever more necessary – of silence.
Differently from what one usually proposes every year, this year we could try to leave aside enforced streamers and fake wannabe champagne by virtue of a moment of maximum inner seriousness.
Hoping that, in due time, we will finally be able to consciously express our own ideas.
If there are any.
[1] Salta, Ken Whitmore, 1995 Il battello a vapore
Picture cured by Marvin Miller www.marvinmiller.it
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