Why the First and Most Important Lesson in Wisdom Is To Master the Silence

"Pythagoras taught nothing to his disciples before silence"

“Apuleius says Pythagoras taught nothing to his disciples before silence. And that the first meditation for one who meant to become a wise man was wholly to refrain the tongue of words — This was the first rudiment of wisdom, to learn to meditate, and to unlearn to talk.”

Pythagoras. His life and teachings — Thomas Stanley

Something hard for many to accept is that most of our words do not come from our own minds. They get thrown at us through everything we consume. Words can be hurtful and are a cause of violence.

Think of yourself approaching a person in anger and that person replies with silence. You might get frustrated even more for not shaking it. How likely are you to further throw words at them if you receive none back?

People tend to use words they don’t apprehend. They think that because a regarded intellectual uses such words, they will make them equally intelligent if they add them to their dictionary. Words hold power and power has consequences.

Our archive of words is ever-expanding. You can ask someone to please be silent or you can tell them to shut up. Throw in the word fuck in the middle and you can have yourself a quarrel. The same words are either received with respect or with an offence. Now, of course, your manner comes into play.

Words can also manipulate one's mind. It’s like how a paedophile persuades children to follow them after they shower them with gentleness until their intentions become clear and it’s already too late to change the outcome.

The Vow of Silence

According to Buddhism, here are the benefits of this practice:

• Improve awareness of self
• Quiet the mind and achieve a meditative state
• Train yourself to listen more than speak
• Learn to speak only when it is right to speak

Monks speak in quotes. The number of words doesn't matter, their quality does.

From silence, you learn to conquer desires. The desire for food, sleep, and all other physical urges. It's purifying the Soul. To gain control, one must first give up control, that's where the sense of irony comes in.

A common saying is that you understand the value of things once you lose them. This value is yours to control but for you to do so you must give in to it and let it be your guide. When your Soul is purified, you own and master these desires. The way you perceive things changes and you achieve what we call your higher self.

Pain works similarly. You might remember the story of the monk that burnt himself to death as an act of revolt during the Vietnam war.

Pain is a response from the physical body. When you master your body you become the master of your life. The feeling of pain generates before it is even experienced.

If you are to get a tattoo, you know or heard that it is painful. That's the first thing people tell you when you say you're getting one. If you never think of it that way, the pain isn't as severe. It's all a matter of what thoughts you feed your mind. If you believe you will feel pain then surely you will. If you don't give it much thought, that same experience will be far less painful.

The same thing happens in relationships. People are afraid of being heartbroken and lied to before the start of a relationship.

The Soul is Everything

You are a Soul trapped in the body, not the other way around. The body is nothing, the Soul is everything. It is the only thing that matters in the end. The flesh dies and rots but the Soul is eternal.

If you look at people that have had a near-death experience or out-of-body experience, they report seeing their Soul exit their body and float around in the same room for a while. You can achieve this state at will, as many intellectuals have in the past. What we call the astral form is the formless form of the Soul. A being of light and of fire.

Astral travel is very similar to dreaming, but the difference is your dreams are a manifestation of your mind. Sometimes they are memories, other times they are hopes and desires that live in your subconscious, and sometimes they are hardships that you have suppressed and never dealt with. When you are in astral form, the experience is similar except that you are fully conscious and aware of what you're doing.

Science doesn't back up these ideas because it cannot prove them. Many have tried and failed, but also, who were they studying? If you're a history buff, you can notice a pattern in how our thinking changed. In the days of old, the Soul was the most discussed thing in philosophy and alchemy alike. That language started dying because it was hard to explain and more modern intellectuals began to neglect it. But the knowledge of this is all around us hidden in the most obvious places. Especially religions.

“The reason for this silence was that the soul might be converted into herself and away from external things — from the irrational passions in her, and from the body, even unto her own life, which is to live forever. Or as Clement of Alexandria expresses it, that his disciples, being diverted from sensible things, might seek God with a pure mind.”

Pythagoras. His life and teachings — Thomas Stanley

Words Express your Deepest Thoughts

Words are how your thoughts and feelings flow outwards. The easiest way to see what a person has suppressed is to see how they speak to others. Every advice you give is one you need to work on. The subconscious is powerful in that sense and it knows you more than you give it credit for.

In writing, we say the more I write, the more I learn. You are always a student, even if you are a teacher. Words are a means to express your ideas but not all minds work the same.

The most common way people think is in visuals. Other ways are smell, sound and senses. You need to see something in front of you so you can digest it back into you. This is why some ideas you get sound fascinating to you but then you try and explain them to others and end up saying: "Oh! that sounded much better in my head".

If you've read a bit about Tesla, you can understand that he was capable of completely imagining his work before lifting a tool. He solved all possible challenges before working on them and refrained from any physical work until he tackled all the solutions in his mind. He had an incredible imagination that he used to work with efficiency and as close to perfection as possible. Other people like Edison lacked this imagination and had to experiment thousands of times until something worked in the end.

Your Soul's Desires

To achieve an astral state willingly is the most difficult task in your spiritual journey. The reason why it is difficult because it’s rarely discussed and the feelings associated with it are strange beyond our conception. Giving in to these emotions can terrify you and as long as fear takes over you, the task will be impossible. The other reason why it’s so hard is that it gives you access to all the hidden realms your eyes cannot see. It’s part of the metaphysical and it brings you closer to understanding the divine.

It will help you understand death and when conquered, nothing or no one can stand in your way. Death is a survival instinct that all living things have. It comes from fear but it isn’t real. Death is only a transition. A passage of the Soul from one life to another, whether in the same form or not.

Giving up control is something very few will consider. When you want something too much it usually becomes harder to achieve especially when you misread the language of the universe.

People that buy lottery tickets every week or pray at night before bed for a miracle to gain riches are the ones that will never have it. You must give in to this experience we call life first and that’s an important lesson we ignore.

To manifest things in your life, you must be sure that they are your true desires. Our desires not always our own. It’s the ads that you see, the products you’re sold or what your favourite celebrities tell you you should own. But have you ever stopped to wonder what your Soul desires?

The only way to find that out is to sit with your thoughts. Refrain from speaking until you have conquered the desire for words.

A fool is known by his speech; and a wise man by silence. — Pythagoras