A few peaceful days without the noisy less quiet housemate around last week got me thinking about the inter-being of silence and noise.
The concept of silence cannot exist without noise, and the concept of noise cannot exist without silence. They depend on each other for existence. Their respective characteristics and qualities are dependent on the existence of the opposite’s characteristics and qualities. In their very being and essence, they contain each other. Like suffering and joy, they inter-are. As with many other seeming dualities we observe in life (life and death, light and darkness, discomfort and well being…).
What causes suffering, then, is not the states of being in themselves, but our perception towards them. If we can see the silence in noise (which I’m really trying to), the light in darkness, the death in life… And vice versa, we would understand that that it is simply their nature to Be. To inter-be. Like a coin cannot be without 2 sides (we can never “remove” one side of the coin), they cannot be without the other. With this realization of insight and understanding, we will achieve release from suffering.
Till then, I strive on..
Along Life's Path 