We do not often speak of the Divine ‘Shiva energy’ in relation to the experience of inner silence, but it can also be part of this silence, for some more so than for others.

We enter the inner silence through being willing to be empty of thought, planning, remembering, anticipating – in other words, we leave both past and future behind and enter an unknown present to the best of our ability.  Within this unknown present, within this void of both past and future, we do not know what we will find.  We do not know who we will be.  We do not know what thoughts will come to us unbidden, perhaps bringing feelings to our awareness that we have not wished to feel. This is not the goal of the silence, but it is often part of it – a part that alters our perception of who we are and who we have been.  We enter the unknown and may welcome a reality that we have not met before, including emotions that we may not have been aware of, or, we may turn away and close down the silence itself so that things may remain more familiar.

Such willingness to be with the unknown invites the Shiva energy to be present, to offer a different picture or experience than the one we may have had. This is not necessarily a picture involving negative emotions.  It is a picture in which we view reality from a different perspective, a perspective that we did not even know was possible.

The Shiva energy dismantles the old and ushers in the new.  It changes us by removing both past obstacles and past frames of reference so that new conditions can prevail within our consciousness, conditions that are more conducive to the learning we are meant to have.  Within the silence, such new conditions may present themselves as welcome and welcoming, or they may create fear for some.  If fear arises in silence, it is often because one is afraid of what is going to happen or may happen.  One is afraid of the unknown.  Thus, many people are anxious about existing in prolonged silence because it can liberate feelings of uncertainty about the nature of one’s past and one’s future.  The Shiva energy can bring about a breaking apart of old assumptions and premises concerning reality itself, and therefore concerning the large questions we have about how we have been living and are meant to live.

The silence of the soul is always positive.  It is always peace.  It is always love and unity.  Nevertheless, on the way to this goal, there arise, at times, other layers of ourselves that must be met before joining with our own deeper self.  It is these layers which present themselves that offer a choice – the choice to remain with the past and to end the silence and our encounter with the unknown, or to go forward, step by step, into further unknown territory, no matter what we might feel.

The Shiva energy dismantles the old and brings forth the new.  It is the Divine creative force of the Universe operating within time and space to evolve all beings through their consciousness and their life.  In the silence, in the letting go of our structures of thought, we say “yes” to change.  We say “yes” to trust.  We say “yes” to being willing to be led in the direction of the unknown, the direction that our highest purpose and our highest good may lead us in.

When we say “yes” in this way, the energy of Shiva carries us forward from the unknown to the known. Yet, we must wait and be willing to be unknown for as long as this may be required. It is in this way that a new ‘known’ will be found from within the silence itself, breaking free into reality at a time and place of Divine choosing, and liberating our highest potential as it will.

Related Writings:

The Heart of Meditation, The Consciousness of Prayer

Letting Go

Letting Go and the Arrival of the New

Entering the Space of the Unknown

Article Section -  Purification