The Language of Silence

What does silence say?

Why do we use language in such a way?

To transcend from its logical form and informative purpose,

or to reflect times when we are unable to articulate?

Should we fill it up with words?

Shall we confront silence with language,

or visa versa?

What world does silence encompass?

What limits of language redefine it?

Is it a nihilistic inner logic,

or pure reflective consciousness, unmediated by thought?

Is silence bereft of meaning,

or only comfort?

Is language the mundane physicalness of things we sculpt?

How is silence understood?

As a denial of what it is not,

as a contrasting role between what we say 

and what we keep for ourselves...

Can we preserve silence,

through the conjunction of one upon the other?

Can formal theories of language define it?

Which states serve its purpose?

Against which reality can we measure it?

Without proof of its existence,

does it collapse?

... and then find itself later recognized essentially as meaningless?

since meaning consists precisely in our ability

to connect through language...

Is silence the boundary of language?

Is the idea of silence our concern with the ineffable?

Is silent reading silence?

Is silence the unutterable where nothing gets lost?

Can something be contained in silence?

What can silence say clearly?

To answer such a question,

we find ourselves in a place where language is shorn of its ability

to make sense of silence.

Is keeping silent in the context of hearing?

Does it require a full understanding of itself?

Does it travel at a faster pace than sound?

Is it still silence if we are listening for it?

Is it part of dialogue?

A deeper part of listening?

Do we learn about language through silence?

Is it a state-of-mind or a mood?

Is it a loss of self,

or conscious discourse?

Can we hear it?

Is silence an awareness of it's own impending annihilation?

Destroyed by sound...

Is it freedom from sound,

in harmony with its own nature?

Is it an inverted form of metaphysics?

An inner logic belonging to thinking and not speech.

Is it asound?

Does it have a nature?

Is it a flaw of language?

What does it control?

Is it illusion or reality?

Does thinking fill the space of silence?

Are monologues running hysterically rampant within it?

Is it a profound meditation on the impact of itself?

Or is it merely sound ceased?

What does its reflection look like?

Do we recognize it in duality?

Is a pause silence?

How long does the pause have to last before it becomes silence?

Is silence merely our respective response to disruption?

Is it finalizing or conceptualizing?

Is it awe-inspiring and beyond our grasp?

Is it a confrontation with words?

Is it art?

Can anything exist within it?

How can we tell?

Can we have silence more than once?

Is all silence the same?

Is it a coming or going, or is it continuous?

Is it an imperfect evidence of nothingness?

Expanding and contracting in our atmosphere

like a lung...

It is imagery, detachable from its inherent physical nature?

Will it stand still forever?

Why are we affected by it so?

Does tension take the place of it?

Does movement bring it to an end?

Is it transcendent?

Does it speak to us directly?

Is it an indirect discourse that can only be experienced

when we break it down?

How can we engage with it?

Is it a higher value than truth?

Is silence more authentic than language?

Is it thinkable or unthinkable?

If we are unable to capture it,

how do we know it exists?

Can we conjure it?

Is it disruptive?

Is it meaningful?

Does it bring us together with self and world?

Whatever silence is or is not,

it is in its own unique way,

something that provides us with an opportunity

to discover its modality.

This is when we break the silence,

the source and fountain from which language spills forth ...