Comments on: The Practice of Silence http://natalieshell.com/2006/11/07/the-practice-of-silence/ small bites to think talk & walk Mon, 22 Aug 2011 20:14:06 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1 By: ken http://natalieshell.com/2006/11/07/the-practice-of-silence/comment-page-1/#comment-4098 ken Sun, 26 Nov 2006 15:50:58 +0000 http://natalieshell.com/2006/11/06/silence/#comment-4098 “Let’s be very, very quiet.” You can try this. It’s a little trick from the sorcerer’s trade here. You intensify the silence between you. You can hold that. Its intensification will require certain muscle. If you can do that, you will notice an impact on the room. The room will quiet down to the point where, if you really keep it up, the whole room will wind up looking at you. What’s that? That’s working with the energy of the room– the atmosphere – the feel." -- Bill Isaacs One of my favourite pieces of music is Arvo Parts spiegel-im-spiegel, it's so quiet it seems to cut through the noise, like the Tibetan thumb bells, small but deep, beneath what words can say? “Let’s be very, very quiet.” You can try this. It’s a little trick from the sorcerer’s trade here. You intensify the silence between you. You can hold that. Its intensification will require certain muscle. If you can do that, you will notice an impact on the room. The room will quiet down to the point where, if you really keep it up, the whole room will wind up looking at you. What’s that? That’s working with the energy of the room– the atmosphere – the feel.” — Bill Isaacs

One of my favourite pieces of music is Arvo Parts spiegel-im-spiegel, it’s so quiet it seems to cut through the noise, like the Tibetan thumb bells, small but deep, beneath what words can say?

]]> By: Natalie Shell http://natalieshell.com/2006/11/07/the-practice-of-silence/comment-page-1/#comment-3764 Natalie Shell Fri, 10 Nov 2006 17:40:59 +0000 http://natalieshell.com/2006/11/06/silence/#comment-3764 thank you to you both - Andres, that poem is beautiful!! Ken - No, I don't mind you asking! I am not clear on my answer although I really appreciate the idea and it adds further impetus to my need to put my things into alternate forms eg white paper digital works etc til soon to you both, natalie thank you to you both – Andres, that poem is beautiful!!
Ken – No, I don’t mind you asking! I am not clear on my answer although I really appreciate the idea and it adds further impetus to my need to put my things into alternate forms eg white paper digital works etc
til soon to you both, natalie

]]> By: ken http://natalieshell.com/2006/11/07/the-practice-of-silence/comment-page-1/#comment-3700 ken Wed, 08 Nov 2006 20:48:48 +0000 http://natalieshell.com/2006/11/06/silence/#comment-3700 Hi Natalie, Is it ok to ask more questions? Your new thinking sounds too intriguing not to ask :) If you could put a picture of the visual maps you've been thinking about up on the wall (or even make a short film, moving pictures :) and then describe that to us how would you describe the picture - what would the language you want to move away from and the attraction of shared knowing you seek look like? Would there be similarities in imagery, colours, metaphors, tonalities, characters, i.e. between picture itself and it's description? Any links between them, bridges to cross the gap, or even parts with no connecting bridge, bits where there words were not enough to cross the space-between them, leaving a tension seeking some creation attention? If you described it in NY would it sound different than if done in Sydney? Perhaps you already described this picture, and folks didn't see/hear/feel where you were coming from (or going to)? Could you paint that picture, a painting of a painting :) Hope that's not too recursively fractal. Watched your video, too - nice - the disjointed start gives me a little flavour, perhaps, of what you might be thinking about, versus the moment of connection at the end, when all the pieces come together into a smooth, seamless, flowing whole). I better be silent now - bye! ...ken Hi Natalie,

Is it ok to ask more questions? Your new thinking sounds too intriguing not to ask :)

If you could put a picture of the visual maps you’ve been thinking about up on the wall (or even make a short film, moving pictures :) and then describe that to us how would you describe the picture – what would the language you want to move away from and the attraction of shared knowing you seek look like?

Would there be similarities in imagery, colours, metaphors, tonalities, characters, i.e. between picture itself and it’s description? Any links between them, bridges to cross the gap, or even parts with no connecting bridge, bits where there words were not enough to cross the space-between them, leaving a tension seeking some creation attention? If you described it in NY would it sound different than if done in Sydney?

Perhaps you already described this picture, and folks didn’t see/hear/feel where you were coming from (or going to)? Could you paint that picture, a painting of a painting :) Hope that’s not too recursively fractal. Watched your video, too – nice – the disjointed start gives me a little flavour, perhaps, of what you might be thinking about, versus the moment of connection at the end, when all the pieces come together into a smooth, seamless, flowing whole). I better be silent now – bye!

…ken

]]> By: Andres Alemany http://natalieshell.com/2006/11/07/the-practice-of-silence/comment-page-1/#comment-3699 Andres Alemany Wed, 08 Nov 2006 20:08:31 +0000 http://natalieshell.com/2006/11/06/silence/#comment-3699 Natalie, Pablo Neruda wrote about silence: (note that in spanish instead of still he uses "you are in silence") I like for you to be still I like for you to be still: it is as though you were absent, and you hear me from far away and my voice does not touch you. It seems as though your eyes have flown away and it seems that a kiss had sealed your mouth. As all things are filled with my soul, you emerge from things, filled with my soul. You are like my soul, a butterfly of dream, and you are like the word Melancholy. I like for you to be still, and you seem far away. It sounds as though you were lamenting, a butterfly cooing like a dove. And you hear me from far away, and my voice does not reach you: Let me come to be still in your silence. And let me talk to you with your silence that is bright as a lamp, simple as a ring. You are like the night, with its stillness and constellations. Your silence is that of a star, as remote and candid. I like for you to be still: it is as though you were absent, distant and full of sorrow as though you had died. One word then, one smile, is enough. And I am happy, happy that it's not true. Natalie,
Pablo Neruda wrote about silence:
(note that in spanish instead of still he uses “you are in silence”)

I like for you to be still

I like for you to be still: it is as though you were absent,
and you hear me from far away and my voice does not
touch you.
It seems as though your eyes have flown away
and it seems that a kiss had sealed your mouth.

As all things are filled with my soul,
you emerge from things, filled with my soul.
You are like my soul, a butterfly of dream,
and you are like the word Melancholy.

I like for you to be still, and you seem far away.
It sounds as though you were lamenting, a butterfly cooing
like a dove.
And you hear me from far away, and my voice does not reach you:
Let me come to be still in your silence.

And let me talk to you with your silence
that is bright as a lamp, simple as a ring.
You are like the night, with its stillness and constellations.
Your silence is that of a star, as remote and candid.

I like for you to be still: it is as though you were absent,
distant and full of sorrow as though you had died.
One word then, one smile, is enough.
And I am happy, happy that it’s not true.

]]> By: Natalie Shell http://natalieshell.com/2006/11/07/the-practice-of-silence/comment-page-1/#comment-3666 Natalie Shell Wed, 08 Nov 2006 00:32:27 +0000 http://natalieshell.com/2006/11/06/silence/#comment-3666 thanks for this Ken! I like your question a lot -I have been thinking a lot about visuals and how to take people away from language/words and use visuals, diagrams maps drawings...and in some interesting way stories too seem to do that - stories, thoigh word-ful are actually pictorially pich - so I see stories as a really healthy way to bridge/break through the verbal and into the shared knowing... what I havent (yet) been successful in is explaining this in a way that everyone understnads ;) thanks for this Ken! I like your question a lot -I have been thinking a lot about visuals and how to take people away from language/words and use visuals, diagrams maps drawings…and in some interesting way stories too seem to do that – stories, thoigh word-ful are actually pictorially pich – so I see stories as a really healthy way to bridge/break through the verbal and into the shared knowing…
what I havent (yet) been successful in is explaining this in a way that everyone understnads ;)

]]> By: ken http://natalieshell.com/2006/11/07/the-practice-of-silence/comment-page-1/#comment-3639 ken Tue, 07 Nov 2006 20:11:21 +0000 http://natalieshell.com/2006/11/06/silence/#comment-3639 Hi, I read this (on PBS, from 2000), and it seemed kind of relevent - Phil Jackson on basketball... "the real idea is that we call it conspiring together, breathing together, with breath, to conspire. And we sit in this attitude of, you know, being able to focus and hold our attention. So it's very important that they have that kind of sense of reading each other, and their level of alertness and awareness and being able to read what's going on on the court causes each of them to react in a certain way. And that's the beauty of basketball, that's the beauty of coaching." If "Love is never having to say you're sorry", does knowing mean not having to use (verbal) language to coordinate behaviour (telling), the fully normed team trusting each other? Nice blog :) - guess the smilies kind of a silent nod too ;) Hi,

I read this (on PBS, from 2000), and it seemed kind of relevent – Phil Jackson on basketball…

“the real idea is that we call it conspiring together, breathing together, with breath, to conspire. And we sit in this attitude of, you know, being able to focus and hold our attention. So it’s very important that they have that kind of sense of reading each other, and their level of alertness and awareness and being able to read what’s going on on the court causes each of them to react in a certain way. And that’s the beauty of basketball, that’s the beauty of coaching.”

If “Love is never having to say you’re sorry”, does knowing mean not having to use (verbal) language to coordinate behaviour (telling), the fully normed team trusting each other? Nice blog :) – guess the smilies kind of a silent nod too ;)

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