“The silence between the notes is as necessary because the notes themselves.” ~Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
When I used to be more youthful, I assumed wisdom was once one thing you should seize—one thing you should write down, measure, and turn out. I assumed that to grasp one thing, I had to provide an explanation for it. And for a very long time, I attempted.
However then, existence—via movie, via tune, via lengthy conversations with other people whose knowledge couldn’t be present in books—taught me one thing else: essentially the most tough truths don’t all the time are available in phrases. They exist within the area between them.
I discovered this lesson within the mountains, the place the sky stretches large, and silence isn’t empty however stuffed with presence. I had traveled there to record a gaggle of elders who carried the historical past in their other people of their voices, of their tales, within the songs they sang to the more youthful generations.
One elder, specifically, stood out. He didn’t talk a lot, but if he did, the others listened. Along his fellow elders, he would chant in a rhythmic, sing-song cadence, weaving the origins of the universe into the material in their small mountain group. However what struck me maximum wasn’t his voice—it was once his silence.
Because the digicam rolled, he sat in stillness. The wind whispered in the course of the timber. The river murmured its everlasting music. In that quiet, there was once one thing deeper than speech, one thing that pulsed with which means.
Later, after I performed the photos for a colleague, they requested, “However what’s he announcing?”
I sought after to reply to, The whole lot.
Listening Past Phrases
Should you’ve ever felt like the sector strikes too speedy, like individuals are talking over every different as an alternative of truly listening to, then you definitely already know the way uncommon true listening is. We are living in a time when everybody desires to be heard, however few know the way to hear.
Listening—actual listening—isn’t as regards to listening to phrases. It’s about feeling presence. It’s about noticing what isn’t being stated. It’s about sensing the load at the back of somebody’s silence, the emotion of their breath earlier than they talk.
I didn’t all the time know the way to hear this manner. In my early years as a filmmaker, I interested in what was once visual—the shot, the framing, the discussion. However over the years, I spotted that essentially the most tough moments weren’t all the time what was once stated aloud. It was once the look between two individuals who had identified every different endlessly. It was once the way in which somebody’s arms trembled earlier than telling a hard tale. It was once the pause between sentences, the place one thing unstated begged to be understood.
This sort of listening—deep listening—is a ability, similar to every other. And like all ability, it may be practiced. It calls for persistence. It calls for presence. And it calls for a willingness to be quiet your self, to let cross of the wish to reply, give an explanation for, or keep an eye on the dialog.
The Silence That Speaks
There’s an outdated educating in Nada Yoga, the yoga of sound, that claims silence isn’t a lack, however a vibration. This can be a resonance that permits which means to spread.
I’ve felt this within the enhancing room, chopping in combination scenes, understanding that what strikes other people isn’t the discussion however the areas between it—the quiet earlier than the revelation, the instant of stillness earlier than the reality lands. I’ve felt it in tune, when a musician lets in a be aware to vanish simply lengthy sufficient for it to sink into the listener’s bones.
And I’ve felt it in existence, in conversations the place somebody stocks one thing so uncooked, so deeply non-public, that every one you’ll be able to do is take a seat with them in silence.
That silence isn’t empty. It is stuffed with acknowledgment, of figuring out, of admire.
The Energy of Presence
Probably the most biggest demanding situations I confronted in my paintings was once convincing folks that this type of wisdom—this talent to take a seat with silence, to note, to be provide—is simply as treasured as details and figures, as theories and research.
Academia, the place I spent a lot of my existence, doesn’t all the time acknowledge the type of wisdom this is felt greater than written. The type of scholarship that comes via movie, via sound, via revel in. There, wisdom is measured in citations, in publications, in issues that may be counted. However how do you rely a pause? How do you measure the have an effect on of a shared silence?
I’ve spent years seeking to recommend for a broader figuring out of what it manner to know one thing. To remember the fact that presence—the facility to be totally right here, totally conscious—is its personal more or less intelligence.
And right here’s what I need you to understand: You don’t need to be a filmmaker or a student to increase this ability. You don’t need to go back and forth to far away mountains or take a seat in lengthy hours of meditation. You simply have to begin paying consideration.
Learn how to Concentrate Deeply
If you wish to discover ways to hear—to in point of fact hear—do that:
1. Pause earlier than responding.
Subsequent time somebody speaks to you, don’t rush to fill the distance. Let their phrases settle. Realize what else is there—their frame language, their expression, what they aren’t announcing.
2. Concentrate with out making plans your answer.
Too ceaselessly, we simplest half-listen as a result of we’re already eager about what we’ll say subsequent. As a substitute, check out simply soaking up what’s being stated. Let the reaction come naturally.
3. Take note of the silences.
In tune, the rests are simply as necessary because the notes. In dialog, the pauses lift which means. Realize what occurs in the ones areas.
4. Be pleased with no longer realizing.
Probably the most maximum profound moments in existence don’t include transparent solutions. Be open to sitting with uncertainty.
5. Apply with sound.
Spend time taking note of the sector round you—truly listening. Shut your eyes. Realize what number of layers of sound exist immediately. The wind. The hum of automobile. The rhythm of your personal respiring.
The extra you increase your talent to hear, the extra you’re going to perceive—no longer as regards to others, however about your self.
A Other More or less Realizing
I write this now, no longer as a choice to palms, however as a call for participation.
To the artists, the thinkers, those who really feel deeply however don’t all the time have the phrases—know that there’s a position for you. There’s worth in the way in which you revel in the sector.
You don’t have to provide an explanation for the entirety. You don’t have to position all of it into phrases.
From time to time, essentially the most tough issues we all know—the issues that modify us—exist within the area between phrases.
And if you happen to ever in finding your self doubting whether or not your approach of seeing, of listening, of feeling has a spot on this global, take into account this:
Probably the most biggest knowledge isn’t spoken.
Probably the most maximum tough messages are by no means written.
And infrequently, one of the best ways to grasp is to easily be provide.
About Tony Collins
Tony Collins, EdD, MFA is a documentary filmmaker, trainer, musician, author, and marketing consultant with 40 years of revel in. His paintings explores inventive expression, scholarly rigor, and nonfiction storytelling throughout the US, Central The usa, Asia, and the UAE. In 2025, he’s self-publishing Inventive Scholarship: Rethinking Analysis in Movie and New Media on Amazon, difficult conventional educational review in movie and new media. Web site: anthonycollinsfilm.com
See a typo or inaccuracy? Please touch us so we will repair it!
