Mooji – Step Into the Fire of Self-Discovery
Mooji: I feel that one has to be sufficiently mature to really learn through silence. It is very difficult to engage through silence and stillness, especially if we come from a culture where we think a lot and have a lot of trust in the more cerebral approach to life, where there is a lot of reasoning and a very strong emphasis on intellectual understanding.
In our Satsang gatherings we often sit together without immediately plunging into verbal interactions. It feels fine in the moment to just sit without talking, and we value and enjoy this. Like this, silence just introduces itself in a very natural way, people just fall into stillness—they don’t have a sense that they are learning anything, and maybe this is a feeling that they can’t quite explain, but it is a very powerful and auspicious experience for them. However, some people who have come to Satsang have felt very uncomfortable with silence initially. When you are in an atmosphere where there are many people, it can seem like being silent is a kind of strange game and even pretentious.
Sometimes we offer silent retreats. People who have never attended one want to know what it is all about. They ask, “Do you sit all day and not speak at all?” It is not like that. In order to create a supportive environment without the usual pressures of our social or worldly habits, we encourage people not to engage in any kind of communication, so that each participant can focus their attention fully on this inner self. Even body language and eye contact are discouraged but, though some find it difficult or unnatural at the start, nearly everyone is happy and grateful at the end. In our silent retreats, everyone moves in silence, even when we eat together. During main Satsang, however, there’s a space where people can bring forward their questions, doubts, testimonies and observations. Initially it can feel very strange for some people. For others it can feel like a great novelty—being with people and not speaking. However, for most, such retreats are like a great gift. After two or three days, most enter into a state of silence very naturally. Some people can’t really sink into it, but most sink into a silence which is not a kept silence, but a true silence which is synonymous with our own natural existence and being. When they begin to experience this field of silence, they can find their answers much more easily and begin to radiate a soft and beautiful energy of pure presence. Many participants pass the state of emotional release through laughter and crying, and gradually find that there’s an effortless and natural joy underlying all changeful states. Following this, they move into a phase where there is just a state of pure neutrality and deep silence, free of egoic identity.
