Wisdom from a kindred spirit

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Comfort by Robert William Service

Tuesday, August 11, 2009 at 12:22pm

Say! You've struck a heap of trouble --

Bust in business, lost your wife;

No one cares a cent about you,

You don't care a cent for life;

Hard luck has of hope bereft you,

Health is failing, wish you'd die --

Why, you've still the sunshine left you

And the big, blue sky.

Sky so blue it makes you wonder

If it's heaven shining through;

Earth so smiling 'way out yonder,

Sun so bright it dazzles you;

Birds a-singing, flowers a-flinging

All their fragrance on the breeze;

Dancing shadows, green, still meadows --

Don't you mope, you've still got these.

These, and none can take them from you;

These, and none can weigh their worth.

What! you're tired and broke and beaten? --

Why, you're rich -- you've got the earth!

Yes, if you're a tramp in tatters,

While the blue sky bends above

You've got nearly all that matters --

You've got God, and God is love.

True Democracy by Hazrat Inayat Khan

Friday, May 22, 2009 at 11:22am

There is really nothing new under the sun. Man thinks that democracy is something which has been developed in the spirit of man, and which he had never known before. He thinks the democratic way is not only right, but new. But when we think deeply, we see that life is the same, the ideals are the same. Nature's laws are the same in all ages. And therefore, these two aspects, the spirit of dependence and independence, have always existed and have always manifested in their time. For instance, every soul knows that in its own life the very first aspect to be experienced is the aspect of dependence. The infant is dependent upon its mother and father. In whatever way they direct him, he acts and works. Then comes the time when he is old enough to understand his own affairs. In everybody's life there have been two phases: the phase of dependence and the phase of independence.

It is exactly the same in the lives of peoples, of communities, and of nations. It is always the same: at first dependence, then independence. At first autocracy, then democracy. The life and evolution of the individual and the multitude are alike.

As freedom is the nature of every soul, so the child, even from infancy, seeks freedom. We want the child to sit in our arms, but it prefers to go and play. An animal, a dog, or a cat, which depends so much on the sympathy of mankind, still does not wish to be deprived of freedom. This shows that at every stage of development life is trying to become free. That is why it is true to say that the spirit of democracy is not a thing just of today. It has existed in all ages. Sometimes its appearance has been timely, and sometimes untimely.

When we trace the cause, the reason for the spirit of democracy, we find that it lies in idealism. The human race first developed a thought of idealism in itself. Religions, learning, education have all emerged from this one human tendency. And what is this idealism? It is the silent consideration, the recognition of affection and attachment, which we even see in beasts and birds. We see that deer recognize their mates, and pigeons and doves have a kind of attachment for them. Sparrows and other birds share the responsibilities for their young with their mates.

This all shows us that this ideal has only culminated in man. Call it religion, wisdom, learning, whatever one wishes, the only really human thing is idealism. As soon as a man begins to think, "These are my parents, and I would like to take care of them, so that they may not have the cares and struggles of life," he shows idealism. Then the ideal extends to his neighbors. "When I was young I could not help them. Now I can help them, and I will look after my neighbors' home and protect it from robbery." Then comes consideration for his life's partner, the queen of the home. As man then sees the beauty of life, he begins to develop his thoughts and imagination, making beautiful forms, which shape themselves into beautiful ideals. He expands the ideal and becomes capable of higher ideals. Motherhood is regarded by everybody with veneration, fatherhood is regarded by everyone with respect. Neighborliness is looked upon with friendly feelings. The elders, chiefs, or kings in the village or town, who have given all their thoughts to the welfare of that town or village, how are they regarded? The people say, "Here is our father who looked after us all when we were helpless or ignorant." In this way the idea of a king or raja came into being, through the development of a certain kind of ideal. The civilization of every age or time always originates in idealism. The whole source of civilization is idealism and nothing else.

If one asks whether one person's mind is equal to another's, or different, the answer is, it is never equal. There is an immeasurable difference between minds. One mind may be developed more than two, another more than ten, another more than a hundred, another more than a thousand persons. One person whom we meet and talk to and sit with makes us feel as if we had been in heaven, so full is he of gentleness, knowledge, response, and goodness. With another, however open-minded we may be, we find that his manner, his point of view, everything, is repulsive, and we cannot help it.

This shows that the root of civilization is idealism. The seedling was in aristocracy, the plant of civilization grows in aristocracy, and the climax comes in autocracy; for it is comfort and power that have always blinded men. We always find people who are without money more thoughtful and considerate than those who have wealth. Those blinded with wealth have no time to think of another person. Even helpless people will have sympathy and share our pain, while those who have the power to help do not.

This aristocracy on one side, and on the other side the authority of a Church with temporal power, both reach a climax when they are blinded by the power of wealth. The aristocracy which was the virtue and culmination of civilization turns into aristocracy; and once that aristocracy begins, whether king, president, elder, or head of a family, there arises a bureaucracy: what the king does the officer does, what he does, the policeman, the constable and everybody else does. As it is said in Sanskrit, "As the king is, so becomes the subject." Everybody values the leader. An autocratic leader produces an effect on every person, making him an autocrat himself. If the king is fond of luxury, the man whose duty it is to wait on the king also becomes fond of ease and comfort. He is too lazy to get up in the morning because the king is lazy also.

When this is so it means that the time has come for another form of life to appear. That is why there come wars, revolutions, floods, strikes, rebellions. These are all signs that life is going to CHANGE. It is not only today. It has been so in all ages. Such signs always mean the change from autocracy to bureaucracy, and then the new era begins, the era of democracy.

By the time that this new period has arrived, the spirit of independence has become ready to meet it. When this spirit is understood wrongly it becomes a time of great trial to the world and humanity at large. When violence comes, rudeness and crudeness predominate in social life and disregard of the true spirit of religion, and of consideration for others, these are the degradation of democracy.

Human nature is just like goats and sheep: where one goes, twenty will follow, and fifty more want to walk behind. So it is with man: one comes and seeks democracy, and the others follow without knowing what democracy is. Democracy is not a craze, not lunacy, not a spell; it is the maturity of souls; that is the real democracy. The soul now feels the responsibility, the value of its own power, the latent power and inspiration, which it possesses. It does not necessarily mean breaking with Church or religion or law, nor a disturbance. These would be a degradation of civilization.

Where can this spirit, this true spirit, be learned? From socialism? Only a little. From politics? Only partially. The view of the politician is a partial view. In the law courts the pleader may tell the truth, but the other side may also tell the truth. Politics may give education, but the perfection of democracy can only be learned from the real science or religion, from the spiritual ideal.

Real spiritual democracy we see in Jesus Christ. According to their law the Jews wished to accuse the people who had sinned, but he told them to let him who had never sinned throw the first stone. That was the outlook of democracy. In that Christ suggested that human nature was everywhere. See the picture of the Master washing the feet of his disciples.

Then in the life of the Prophet we read of a Negro slave, whom the Prophet's grandson called by his name. The Prophet said, "That is not good manners. Call him 'Uncle,' he is older than you." He taught his followers that in the house of God there is no distinction between king and servant. The place of prayer should not be for rich people only. All can pray together, shoulder to shoulder. The sultan and the beggar can meet and pray thus. That is democracy.

Whence did it come? It came from the depth of religion. It came from spiritual law. Howbeit humble and low a person may be in occupation and evolution, we are none the less interdependent and require his help and service as he needs ours. However much wealth or power or rank we possess, we still depend upon the humblest and poorest person in the world. The realization that the whole of life must be give and take, is the realization of the spiritual truth and the fact of true democracy. Not until this spirit is formed in the individual himself can the whole world be raised to a higher grade of evolution.

A Catechism of Revelation

Friday, May 1, 2009 at 11:22am

Q: What dost thou see, O disciple on the Path?

A: Naught but myself, O Master of my life.

Q: Look closer at thyself and speak again. What seest thou?

A: A point of light which waxes and wanes and makes the darkness darker.

Q: Look with intense desire towards the dark and, when the light shines forth, grasp that opportunity. What now appears?

A: A horrid sight, O Master of my life. I like it not. It is not true. I am not this or that. This evil selfish thing, it is not me. I am NOT this.

Q: Turn on the light with will and power and fierce desire, and then recount the vision that may come. What seest thou?

A: Beyond the dark, revealed to me by means of light, I see a radiant form which beckons me. What is this Being, standing gracious in the dark and in the light? Is it and can it be myself?

Q: What dawns upon thy sight as thou standest on the Way, O worn and tired disciple, yet triumphant in the light?

A: A radiant shining form which is my Self, my soul. And a dark and somber figure, yet old and wise, experienced and sad. This is my self, my lower self, my ancient tired appearance upon the ways of earth. These two stand face to face and in between them, the burning ground…They move and merge…The Path comes to and end. The Way stretches before. Sight is attained, and in the light reality appears.

Q: What canst thou now reveal, O Server on the Way?

A: Revelation comes through me, O Lord of Life. I see it not.

Q: Why canst thou see it not? What hinders apprehension?

A: Naught hinders me. I seek not sight for I have seen. My task is revelation. I seek naught for myself.

Q: What comes thy way for revelation? What hast thou to reveal?

A: Only that which has for eons long existed, and has for aye been here. The Oneness of the Presence; the area of love; the living, loving, wise, inclusive One, enfolding all, and being all, and leaving naught outside.

Q: To whom must come this revelation, O Server of the world of living things?

A: To all enfolded in the living, loving Presence; to those who all unknown to them maintain that Presence, and for ever shall endure—as doth that Presence.

Q: And who are those who live within that Presence but know it not?

A: They are myself and thou, and still they are myself and still are all I meet. It is the one in every form who thinks mayhap that form is all; who living thus in time and space, sees not the light of life within the form, who hides within, behind the veils (evils), between the four kingdoms in nature and the fifth, the Kingdom of God, and see naught else. To them I must reveal the truth.

Q: How will you do this hardest of all tasks, O triumphing disciple?

A: By letting it be seen I am myself the truth; by living consciously as a fragment of that Presence, and seeing all its parts. And thus is revelation brought into the four and by the fifth.

The Aquarian Age -- Eleventh House: Aquarius the Water-Bearer

Tuesday, March 3, 2009 at 2:23pm

The Eleventh House is the house of group creative expressions. It is the desire to pool and merge the time, efforts and resources of the individual with those of the larger society in order to create something new for the benefit of everyone. Enhancement of the polity overwhelms the desire for self-aggrandizement, the walls of Ego come tumbling down and the individual communes with the totality of the species.

Aquarius, however, is an eminently revolutionary sign, and its occult significance is knowledge. The constellation of Aquarius is governed by the planet Uranus, which is a completely revolutionary planet. The sign of Aquarius shows a man with two pitchers of water who is wisely combing these waters. The doctrine of the Age of Aquarius is thus termed the "Doctrine of the Synthesis", the synthesis of all authentic religions and systems of self-realization. In the Aquarian Age dogmatic types of Christianity will cease to be taught, and all dogmatic forms will disappear. In this age science will become religious, and religion will become scientific. Disagreements between science and religion will come to an end, and people will begin to comprehend that both spirit and matter are derived from the same source, and are only modifications of the One Universal Energy. In the Age of Aquarius humanity will have marvelous breakthroughs in many scientific disciplines, including physics, chemistry, astronomy, medicine, aviation, etc.

They say that, at that time, mankind will go through a radical transformation, filled with great splendor and magnificence. Such Utopian concepts, however, are unfounded. Every man, woman, and nation bears enormous karmic debts that need to be paid before a Golden Age can become a reality. And as long as the psychological ego, that multitude of negative psychological elements, exists within us, this cannot take place. Within our psyche exists all those factors that create wars, hatred, violence, envy, disharmony, etc. In order to create an environment of love, peace, and fraternity between every human being, we must first permanently eliminate the elements within us that create the exact opposite environment. V.M. Samael Aun Weor states that "in order to create, it is necessary to destroy." For a Golden Age to occur, every person must struggle and make conscious efforts to eliminate his or her psychological defects.

Within us there are those factors of discord that produce wars, egotism, hatred, violence, lust; when egotism and violence are collectively expressed then war appears on the stage of life.

To bring about true social change we must first begin by changing ourselves. By practicing the Three Factors for the Revolution of Consciousness we can dissolve the negative elements found within our psyche and also create the inner virtues that are necessary to live in harmony with nature and the rest of humanity. We must consciously work towards this goal, even if others choose not to do so. In this way, regardless of whether a Golden Age exists externally, we are consciously working towards creating a "Golden Age" within ourselves.

A race lasts as long as the sun's journey lasts around the zodiacal belt. Our race was born in the constellation of Aquarius during the age of the water bearer, after the universal flood.

Now the end is near, since the journey of the solar system has ended; it has returned after many years, to the point of origin, since in these precise moments we find ourselves in the Age of Aquarius.

This age began on February 4th, 1962 between 2 and 3 PM in the afternoon. At that time, all the astronomers of the world, could see with their telescopes the celestial traffic jam under the constellation of the water bearer; what we are saying is therefore, duly documented. We are not affirming anything that would not have proper documentation.

Those of you who know people very well, who converse with your fellow men, know what a struggle it is to earn one's daily bread.

Therefore reflecting sincerely, with all my heart, those who prophesy an age of beauty and splendor after the year 2000, are, therefore, mistaken. To create one has to destroy...When we clearly observe the zodiacal sign of Aquarius, we can evince extraordinary things. Aquarius is the house of Uranus and Saturn. Uranus is a revolutionary, terrible, catastrophic planet and it controls the sexual glands. Saturn, obviously, reminds us of chaos, the return to the point of original departure.

Aquarius, dominated by chaos, is death; Uranus is revolution. Leo is burning fire; obviously, the lion of the law comes to meet humanity, who is already ripe for the final punishment.

The truth is this new age brings truth, knowledge, wisdom and the real spiritual life. This epoch will enable everything to develop to its highest potential, but it will take many centuries to reach such advanced levels. At first, as is usually the case, the irreligious scientists will profit from the new advances while the masses will be restrained and restricted by their religions. Religious people have fallen and will fall into severe fanatical religious delusion during these times. Especially during the 184 years (1844 - 2028) duration of this change, religious beliefs of all kinds have risen and will rise up and bring many humans under their control. Murder, suicide and exploitation of all kinds, as well as religious slavery to false teachings and beliefs will be the daily occurrence, by which the whole world will fall victim. False prophets and false religious leaders will offer "salvation" publicly in a fanatical search for victims and new followers.

The transition phase of 184 years is the initial phase of the Aquarian Age. The end of this initial phase will come in 2028. The revolutionary force of this new age began in 1844 and since then the extensive changes and advancements on Earth rush irresistibly forward. The resistance by mankind of the new age forces has caused mass religious delusion, uncontrolled rapidly developing sciences, worldwide rampant crime and destructive wars, all characteristics of this time that cannot be ignored. The first half of the transition period lasted 92 years, until 1936, while the Earth strongly felt the last forces of the "Age of Pisces". Since that time, rapidly progressing events, discoveries, inventions, and social changes have been characteristic.

The origin of this change of the ages is in the radiation effect of the huge central sun through the precession of the Equinoxes which takes 25,860 years to complete one cycle and because of this our planet passes through the 12 ages of the astrological zodiac, each age lasting 2155 years. The Earth has already touched the outer borders of the Aquarian Age radiation of the central sun, which are of the strongest and most revolutionary radiations.

Much mischief and evil is connected with this change, especially in respect to religions, and the use of new discoveries and advancements.

“In the New Age we break free of centuries of false doctrines, destructive indoctrinations, absurd ideas, and children’s stories about God, education, medicine, and love. The corrupt foundations of false society crumble. This time of crises is not the signal of the end of the world. What comes is not the end, but the beginning. The dream humanity has lived for centuries ends and we awaken to a bright new day, a bright new way.

Now in the Age of Aquarius, everything becomes unified. All our differences, all our dualities mix together like the fragrances of a flower shop, with all of the different flowers adding their bouquet to the overall mix until they are inseparable. Each individual flower remains distinct and individual, each one’s fragrance is unique and discernible when you come up close to it, yet joined together in unity with the others in the wonderful mixture that is the smell of the shop.

Our individual worth comes from inside, from what we have inside, through our development, our evolution, and what we can give to society. Now our drastic differences dissolve and we integrate into the whole. We integrate and unify with the energy of the universe, with the great cosmic spirit.

Mystically, Aquarius signifies friendship. Friendship bursts upon us in its most elevated sense, in its most noble aspect — with understanding, collaboration, and fraternity. Love and friendship will have nothing to do with possessing or ego. The idea of love meaning 'you belong to me' ends in the New Age. The thought of friends of convenience, friendship based on an ulterior motive such as business ends. Love and friendship based on anything other than pure love, the divine and pure love of God, changes the sentiment into a coin of exchange — you no longer have love or friendship because of who you are, but because of what you do or can do for me.

This is the era of peace, of unity, of love. The polarity of Aquarius, Leo, floods us with its complementary characteristics. The celestial throne of the Sun, Leo, encourages, ennobles, enriches, and enlightens us for the growth of our hearts, the growth of our inner beings. Together with Aquarius, Leo promotes the integration of our individuality with our unity with all humanity. We realize that we must first be something in and of ourselves to be something for others.

Under their combined influence, friendship with an agenda disappears into true fraternity, into pure unity. Then we can prepare ourselves for unity with the universal spirit. . .

In the Age of Aquarius, we break from the past to invent the future we desire in our society and in our person. The answers we find will be wholly new ones, totally original ones, but they require a thorough examination of what has been and what we wish to come. All our institutions as we know them must adapt to this new reality." ----Walter Mercado, Beyond The Horizon: Visions of a New Millennium

Be a Bizarre Love Triangle - Tantric Sacred Geometry

Tuesday, March 3, 2009 at 6:20am

Each thing is perceived through knowing.

The self shines in space through knowing.

Perceive one being as knower and known.

Know the knower and the known as one.

Whenever you know something, it is known through knowing. The object comes to your mind through the faculty of knowledge. You look at a flower; you know this is a sunflower. The sunflower is there and you are inside here. Something from inside of you comes to the sunflower. Some energy moves from you, comes to the flower, takes its form, color and smell, and comes back and informs you that this is indeed a sunflower.

All knowledge, whatsoever you know, is revealed through the faculty of knowing. Knowledge is gathered through this faculty. But knowing reveals two things: The known and the knower. The relationship between the two is knowledge. So knowledge is divided into 3 equilateral points: knower, known, and knowing. Knowing is the bridge between 2 points--the subject and the object. Ordinarily your knowledge reveals only the known; the knower remains unrevealed (hidden). Therefore, ordinary knowledge is one-dimensional; it points to the object--the world, matter. You know much about the world, but unless it points back to you (reflection), it will not allow you to know about yourself.

All techniques of meditation are to reveal the knower--the hidden in the shadows. One of the oldest techniques that the Buddha used is self-remembering; he called it samyak smriti--right mindfulness. Whenever you know something, always remember the knower. Don't forget it in the object. Remember the subject. It must not only flow in one direction towards the object. It must flow simultaneously towards both directions, the object and the subject--the known and the knower, matter and mind. When looking at a flower, also remember the one who is looking. Easier said than done! If you try to be aware of the knower, you will forget the flower. If you become aware of the known, the knower will be forgotten. But with some effort and practice to be aware of both simultaneously, right mindfulness is attained.

The Buddha said that your mind is not in a right mindfulness if it knows only one point. It must know both. And only then a miracle happens: if you're aware of both the known and the knower, suddenly you become a third eye--you are neither! The third becomes the witness, a witnessing self comes into being. The knower is your mind and the known is the world, and you become a third point in this bizarre love triangle--a consciousness, a witnessing self.

In the night you sleep and you dream. In the morning, you wake and the dream is lost. While awake there is no dream; a different world comes into your view. You move in the streets and you work in some place. Then you come back to your home, and again you fall asleep at night. Then the world that you knew while awake disappears. Then you don't remember who you are; you don't know whether you are black or white, poor or rich, wise or foolish, young or old, man or woman. You don't know anything as you enter the world of dreams. The waking world is forgotten, it is no more. In the morning, again the dreaming world disappears. You come back.

Which is real? Why do people insist that the dreaming world is unreal? Is it because it disappears when you are awake? If this is the argument, I say that the dreaming world may be more real, because while you're awake you can remember the dream, but while you are dreaming you cannot remember the waking consciousness and the world around it. The dreaming world completely washes away the world that you call real. Your real world cannot wash away the dreaming world so totally; it seems more solid, more real. Of course, a materialist would beg the differ and the critic will always vehemently defend his one-sided belief that his world is real. This arrogant sense of exclusivity is the root of all fratricide.

But Tantra, the Bizarre Love Triangle, says that both are unreal. Then what exactly is real? Tantra says that the one who knows the dreaming world and the one who knows the waking world, he is real--because he is never transcended. He can't be canceled. Whether you dream or you are awake, he is there, uncanceled. The one is always there. That which cannot be canceled by any experience is the Real. This is your Self. It cannot be transcended; you cannot go beyond it no matter how hard you try. The one is always there, actually here, truthfully nowhere. Your denial of your self is the original sin of ignorance. The manipulated suppression of the individual self by organized religion is the antichrist of the human spirit. The witnessing self is the ultimate, the basic ground of consciousness (Buddha's Pure Land).

With mind, di-vision of separation remains. Only with the witnessing self division disappears into oneness, the Unity of Diversity. This is Tantric Sacred Geo-me-try. So try it, experiment with action to reach experience. Understanding without action is an acquaintance of the dis-eased mind in philosophical discussion.

Find an object of desire, any object: look at it with total attention so that the whole world disappears and only the object remains. With focused attention, everything else falls away and the object becomes the world. Concentration is the first step towards meditation. Without it, it will be difficult to move to the knower, because your mind is always diverted, distracted by the phenomena of the world to prevent you from moving inwards, to start becoming aware of yourself--the knower.

In the beginning of meditation, it is difficult. When you shift to the knower, the known will drop out of consciousness. It will become faint, it will go away, it will become distant. Again you will come to the known, and forget the self. This hide-and-seek play will go on, but if you persist, sooner or later a rare moment will come when suddenly you will be in between. The knower, the mind, and the sunflower will be there, and you will be in the middle, looking at both.That middle point, that balancing act, that "man on wire" is the silent witness. You have become both. You are the center of both.They are extensions of you, the very center of being. And this center is just a witness. This is the symbolic meaning behind the Holy Trinity, the three-in-One. The Father is the known world, the Son is the mind knower, and the Holy Ghost is the silent witness.The Holy Ghost is the balanced center of existence. In that center, you are rooted, grounded, silent, blissful, ecstasy, and duality is no more. This is what Hindus called samadhi, what Jesus called the kingdom of God.

Understand this verbally is pointless. You have to take action, make practice, and concentrate until the world disappears. Whenever you move your attention, a world is created, and from wherever you remove your attention, the world drops. So you can create worlds through your attention or destroy worlds through your ignorance (lack of attention). The choice is yours, use the law of attraction or or abuse the call for destruction. The power of attraction is the most powerful force in the universe. That's why people in power suppress this knowledge to selfishly protect the status quo.

Buddha said that this path to our true nature is a middle path. His whole process of mindfulness (return path of self-remembering) is the Middle Path of native intelligence. He says, "Don't leave the world, and don't cling to the other world. Rather, be in-between. Don't leave one extreme and move to the other; just be in the middle, because in the middle both are not. Just in the middle you are free. There is no duality. You have come to one." Those who are worldly are imbalanced, and those who have renounced are also imbalanced in the other extreme. A balanced man is one who is neither; he lives in the middle, not worldly nor otherworldly. He is free to move, not attached to any. He become the golden mean.

To remain in the middle is very difficult. Because in the middle you have to lose your mind. Your mind exists in extremes. It loves excess and hates neutrality. Mind needs the opposite, it needs to be opposed to something otherwise it has no function, no purpose. It dreads indifference which refuses to pick a side in the mortal rules of engagement. If you are neither for nor against, what is left to think? Being indifferent to the extremes is the balancing act which gives you a new dimension of feeling where you are both the knower and the known, the world and the otherworld, this and that, body and mind, particle and wave. You are both, and simultaneously neither--above both. A bizarre love triangle has come into existence. The Jewish Star of David is 2 inverted triangles, which represent male and female, yang and yin in holy union to radiate life. The triangle is one of the oldest occult symbols.

Once you gain the third angle and be a witness, you cannot be in misery. Misery means getting identified with something--making a choice, pick a side and suppress the other, afraid of the opposite. Identification is a disease. Just remain a witness, be a spectator--neutral, indifferent, unattached, unconditioned, unidentified. Remain centered in yourself, don't get attached to anything or cling to anyone. Just simply be a witness; whatsoever, you will see it. To what may come, you will cross that bridge. When it comes, when it goes, you will see.

To be a witness is the highest possibility of consciousness. Arising, existing, and dying and you remain just a witness--the all-seeing eye. The Real-eye-zation of the One that pervades the uni-verse and holds the s-Word---SILENCE.