Can We Learn To Be Silent? Essay

Silence is golden but too much silence is death. The act of remaining silent is a practice that can be learnt and applied to everyday life but one must learn how to balance silence and speaking. How easy is it to be silent with all the activities that happen around us, all the people that we have to interact with every day, is it a reasonable way of living? People all over the world take countless vows to remain silent in order to deal with various struggles in life. Others chose silence when angered especially in the work place or by loved ones so as to avoid conflict and the grave consequences that would follow confrontation. However it is important to learn when to be silent and when to speak up.
It has been established that silence is golden and silence is a virtue that allows one to acquire knowledge. Silence inform of meditation is a practise in certain religions such as Buddhism that allow the believers to grow closer to god, as in silence you are able to listen more and become open to nature and surroundings. But as it is seen with the four students in japan who were trying to meditate it is not so easy to avoid distractions from the world around you. Four of the five students got distracted and only one student was able to remain silent.
Silence is not an easy task to do but that does not mean that it is impossible. The four students represent various aspects in our lives that may hinder us from being silent which include egocentrism, intolerance, obliviousness and attachment. Learning to be silent is learning how to control your inner self the emotions in order to be unaffected by the external surroundings. Practising silence can allow one to learn more about them and others and this will assist one to relate with others in harmony.
However there are situations where one cannot remain silent. In the case of injustice and unfairness it is important to speak out and be heard to advocate change. People must not remain silent when they identify unfair treatment of the weak and those who have no voice to speak from themselves. It is important to fight for what is right and what is just, otherwise is we remain silent we will become passive contributors to an unjust society.
In conclusion, the main question is not whether or not we can learn to be silent; but rather, do we know when to be silent. By learning when to apply silence to our advantage in any given situation will allow one to live a harmonious knowledgeable life. By balancing that with knowing when and how to speak out we can expect that people will live in harmony.