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73-395: Silence is the lack of audible sound. Silence or The Silence may also refer to: Silence Sometimes speakers fall silent when they hesitate in searching for a word, or interrupt themselves before correcting themselves. Discourse analysis shows that people use brief silences to mark the boundaries of prosodic units , in turn-taking , or as reactive tokens, for example, as

146-542: A fraction of a second. In the spirited and energetic finale of his Symphony No. 2 , Brahms uses silences at several points to powerfully disrupt the rhythmic momentum that has been building. (See also syncopation .) During the 20th century, composers explored further the expressive potential of silence in their music. The contemplative concluding bars of Anton Webern's Symphony (1928) and Stravinsky 's Les Noces The Wedding, 1923) make telling and atmospheric use of pauses. Eric Walter White (1947, p. 74) describes

219-770: A longstanding controversy as to how humans experience silence: "the perceptual view (we literally hear silence), and the cognitive view (we only judge or infer silence)", with prominent theories holding the latter view. However, a study published in 2023 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reported findings based on empirical experiments testing whether temporal distortions known to be experienced with respect to sounds, were also analogously experienced with respect to periods of silence. The experimental results in all cases suggested that, at least in this context, humans respond to moments of silence

292-521: A more apt translation is "non-secondness." Advaita has several meanings: The word Vedānta is a composition of two Sanskrit words: The word Veda refers to the whole corpus of vedic texts, and the word "anta" means 'end'. From this, one meaning of Vedānta is "the end of the Vedas" or "the ultimate knowledge of the Vedas". Veda can also mean "knowledge" in general, so Vedānta can be taken to mean "the end, conclusion or finality of knowledge". Vedānta

365-411: A person on earth, sun does rise and set, there is both light and darkness, not "all is light", there are relative shades of light and darkness. Both are valid realities and truths, given their perspectives. Yet, they are contradictory. What is true from one point of view, states Grimes, is not from another. To Advaita Vedānta, this does not mean there are two truths and two realities, but it only means that

438-476: A powerful sense of propulsion: "The rhythm of bar 1 is incomplete and demands a note at the beginning of bar 2. The substitution of such a note by a whole-bar rest therefore gives the effect of a suppressed sound, as if one were about to speak but then refrains at the last moment. The 'suppressed sound' is then repeated in bar 4, and 'developed' (by being doubled) in bars 7 and 8." Grove (1898 , p. 355) harvtxt error: no target: CITEREFGrove1898 ( help ) writes of

511-670: A professor of philosophy specializing in Sanskrit and Vedic studies, the word Advaita itself is from the Vedic era, and the Vedic sage Yajnavalkya (8th or 7th-century BCE ) is credited to be the one who coined it. Stephen Phillips, a professor of philosophy and Asian studies, translates the Advaita containing verse excerpt in Brihadaranyaka Upanishad , as "An ocean, a single seer without duality becomes he whose world

584-461: A sense of comfort from humming, whistling, talking to themselves, or having the TV or radio on. "Silence" in spirituality is often a metaphor for inner stillness. A silent mind, freed from the onslaught of thoughts and thought patterns, is both a goal and an important step in spiritual development. Such "inner silence" is not about the absence of sound; instead, it is understood to bring one in contact with

657-407: A sign of displeasure, disagreement, embarrassment, desire to think, confusion, and the like. Relatively prolonged intervals of silence can be used in rituals ; in some religious disciplines, people maintain silence for protracted periods, or even for the rest of their lives, as an ascetic means of spiritual transformation. In the philosophy of perception and the science of perception, there has been

730-485: A strong beat, contributing to the syncopation . Scott Joplin 's Rag-Time Dance (1902) features stop-time silences: Early recordings of the Rag Time Dance follow Joplin's instructions as follows: "To get the desired effect of 'Stop Time', the pianist will please stamp the heel of one foot heavily upon the floor." Later recordings disregard this direction – the regular beat is implied rather than stated and

803-479: A time for contemplation . The audience feels the effects of the previous notes and melodies, and can intentionally reflect on what they have heard. Silence does not hinder musical excellence but can enhance the sounds of instruments and vocals within a given musical composition . In his book Sound and Silence (1970), the composer John Paynter says, "the dramatic effect of silence has long been appreciated by composers." He gives as an example "the general pause in

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876-562: Is Brahman." While the term "Advaita Vedanta" in a strict sense may refer to the scholastic tradition of textual exegesis established by Shankara, "advaita" in a broader sense may refer to a broad current of advaitic thought, which incorporates advaitic elements with yogic thought and practice and other strands of Indian religiosity, such as Kashmir Shaivism and the Nath tradition. The first connotation has also been called "Classical Advaita" and "doctrinal Advaita," and its presentation as such

949-439: Is a Hindu tradition of textual exegesis and philosophy which states that jivatman , the individual experiencing self, is ultimately pure awareness mistakenly identified with body and the senses, and non-different ("na aparah") from Ātman - Brahman , the highest Self or Reality . The term Advaita literally means "non-secondness", but is usually rendered as " nondualism ", and often equated with monism . It rejects

1022-403: Is an argument based on the assumption that someone's silence on a matter suggests (an informal fallacy ) that person's ignorance of the matter. In general, ex silentio refers to the claim that the absence of something demonstrates the proof of a proposition. The right to silence is a legal protection enjoyed by people undergoing police interrogation or trial in certain countries. The law

1095-485: Is an inevitable giggle—the same giggle that overtakes a prestidigitator 's audience when it realizes that it has been 'had'." Barry Cooper (2011, p. 38) writes extensively of Beethoven 's many uses of silence for contemplation, for dramatic effect and especially for driving the rhythmic impetus of the music. He cites the start of the second movement of the Ninth Symphony , where the silences contribute to

1168-417: Is attained through knowledge of Brahman, recognizing the illusoriness of the phenomenal world and disidentification from the body-mind complex and the notion of 'doership', and acquiring vidyā (knowledge) of one's true identity as Atman - Brahman , self-luminous ( svayam prakāśa ) awareness or Witness-consciousness . Upanishadic statements such as tat tvam asi , "that['s how] you are," destroy

1241-482: Is based on this broader strand of Indian thought. This broader current of thought and practice has also been called "greater Advaita Vedanta," "vernacular advaita," and "experiential Advaita." It is this broader advaitic tradition which is commonly presented as "Advaita Vedanta," though the term "advaitic" may be more apt. The nondualism of Advaita Vedānta is often regarded as an idealist monism . According to King, Advaita Vedānta developed "to its ultimate extreme"

1314-553: Is both the efficient and the material cause, that from which the material universe evolves. Yet, in the Brahmasutras Brahma is a dynamic force, while the Advaita-tradition regards Brahman as an "essentially unchanging and static reality," sinve Brahman changing into something else would mean that Brahman would not exist anymore, while a partial change would leave Brahman divided. By accepting that Brahman

1387-516: Is due to mediaeval doxographies , the influence of Orientalist Indologists like Paul Deussen , and the Indian response to colonial influences, dubbed neo-Vedanta by Paul Hacker, who regarded it as a deviation from "traditional" Advaita Vedanta. Yet, post-Shankara Advaita Vedanta incorporated yogic elements, such as the Yoga Vasistha , and influenced other Indian traditions, and neo-Vedanta

1460-818: Is either explicit or recognized in many legal systems. The documentary film In Pursuit of Silence (2016) portrays the spiritual and physical benefits of silence, as well as the price paid individually and collectively for a noisy world. It is narrated by authors Helen Lees ( Silence in Schools ), Pico Iyer ( The Art of Stillness ), Susan Cain ( Quiet ), Maggie Ross ( Silence: A User's Guide ), and George Prochnik ( In Pursuit of Silence ). Music inherently depends on silence, in some form or another, to distinguish other periods of sound and allow dynamics , melodies , and rhythms to have greater impact. For example, most music scores feature rests , which denote periods of silence. In addition, silence in music can be seen as

1533-482: Is intelligent and consciousness, is the sole Reality, "that from which the origination, subsistence, and dissolution of this universe proceed," as stated in the second verse of the Brahman Sutras. In Samkhya, purusha is the efficient cause, and prakriti is the material cause: purusha causes prakriti to manifest as the natural world. Advaita, like all Vedanta schools, states that Brahman, consciousness,

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1606-598: Is no duality between a Creator and the created universe. All objects, all experiences, all matter, all consciousness, all awareness are somehow also this one fundamental reality Brahman. Yet, the knowing self has various experiences of reality during the waking, dream and dreamless states, and Advaita Vedānta acknowledges and admits that from the empirical perspective there are numerous distinctions. Advaita explains this by postulating different levels of reality, and by its theory of errors ( anirvacaniya khyati ). Shankara proposes three levels of reality, using sublation as

1679-848: Is not one of the systems of Indian philosophy. Samkhya is the philosophy of India!" Gopinath Kaviraj The Brahma Sutras, the constituting text of the Vedanta-tradition, rejects the purusha - prakriti dualism of the samkhya-tradition, and "much of the Brahmasutra appears to have been written to refute the perspective of the Samkhya school." Samkhya postulates two independent primal principles, purusha (primal consciousness) and prakriti (nature, which includes both matter and cognition and emotions). In samkhya, prakriti consists of three qualities ( Guṇas ), which are in balance, until they come in contact with purusha and

1752-548: Is not an awareness of Brahman, but instead an awareness that is Brahman. Although the threefold practice is broadly accepted in the Advaita tradition, and affirmed by Mandana Misra , it is at odds with Shankara, who took a subitist position. Classical Advaita Vedānta states that all reality and everything in the experienced world has its root in Brahman, which is unchanging intelligent Consciousness. To Advaitins, there

1825-503: Is one of six orthodox schools of Hindu philosophy . While "a preferred terminology" for Upanisadic philosophy "in the early periods, before the time of Shankara" was Puruṣavāda , the Advaita Vedānta school has historically been referred to by various names, such as Advaita-vada (speaker of Advaita), Abheda-darshana (view of non-difference), Dvaita-vada-pratisedha (denial of dual distinctions), and Kevala-dvaita (non-dualism of

1898-670: Is something like being thrown forward when a car stops suddenly. It is the biggest surprise in an engaging piece of music full of little deviations ( syncopations ) from the repeated beat." Other examples include the closing bars of Louis Armstrong 's recording of Struttin' with Some Barbecue (1928) and the hair's-breadth pause at the end of pianist Bill Evans ' solo on Miles Davis ' recording of On Green Dolphin Street (1959). Duke Ellington 's "Madness in Great Ones", from his Shakespearean Suite Such Sweet Thunder (1957) conveys

1971-420: Is the "real self" or "essence" of the individual. It is caitanya , Pure Consciousness, a consciousness, states Sthaneshwar Timalsina, that is "self-revealed, self-evident and self-aware ( svaprakashata )," and, states Payne, "in some way permanent, eternal, absolute or unchanging." It is self-existent awareness, limitless and non-dual. It is "a stable subjectivity, or a unity of consciousness through all

2044-573: Is the sole, unchanging reality, various theoretical difficulties arise which are not answered by the Brahmasutras, which asserts that the Upanishadic views have to be accepted due to their scriptural authority, "regardless of logical problems and philosophical inconsistencies." Advaita and other Vedānta traditions face several problems, for which they offer different solutions. According to Deutsch and Dalvi, "The basic problem of Vedanta [is]

2117-534: The Hallelujah chorus in Handel 's Messiah : Musical silences may also convey humour. Haydn 's Quartet in E flat, Op. 33 was nicknamed "The Joke", because of the comic timing of the pauses at the end of the last movement: Taruskin (2010, p. 552) says, "whenever this ending is performed, it takes the audience an extra second or so to recover its wits and realize that the piece is indeed over. The result

2190-454: The Baháʼí Faith , Baha'u'llah said in "Words of Wisdom", "the essence of true safety is to observe silence". Eckhart Tolle says that silence can be seen either as the absence of noise, or as the space in which sound exists, just as inner stillness can be seen as the absence of thought, or the space in which thoughts are perceived. A common way to remember a tragic incident and to remember

2263-466: The Samkhya -dualism between Purusha , pure awareness or consciousness, and Prakriti ('nature', which includes matter but also cognition and emotion) as the two equal basic principles of existence. Instead, it proposes that Atman-Brahman (awareness, purusha ) alone is ultimately real , and, though unchanging, the cause and origin of the transient phenomenal world ( prakriti ). In this view,

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2336-580: The Sannyasa Upanishads (first centuries CE), the Vākyapadīya , written by Bhartṛhari (second half 5th century, ) and the Māndūkya-kārikā written by Gauḍapāda (7th century). Gaudapada adapted philosophical concepts from Buddhism , giving them a Vedantic basis and interpretation. The Buddhist concepts were further Vedanticised by Adi Shankara (8th c. CE), who is generally regarded as

2409-482: The jivatman or individual self is a mere reflection or limitation of singular Ātman in a multitude of apparent individual bodies. It regards the material world as an illusory appearance ( maya ) or "an unreal manifestation ( vivarta ) of Brahman," the latter as proposed by the 13th century scholar Prakasatman . Advaita Vedanta is a Hindu sādhanā , a path of spiritual discipline and experience, and states that moksha (liberation from suffering and rebirth)

2482-534: The mahavakyas , posing a paradox of two opposing approaches which is also recognized in other spiritual disciplines and traditions. Shankara's prominence as the exemplary defender of traditional Hindu-values and spirituality started to take shape only centuries later, in the 14th century, with the ascent of Sringeri matha and its jagadguru Vidyaranya (Madhava, 14th cent.) in the Vijayanagara Empire , While Adi Shankara did not embrace Yoga ,

2555-452: The srutic evidence for the identity of jivanatman and Atman-Brahman. This meditation negates the misconceptions, false knowledge, and false ego-identity , rooted in maya , which obfuscate the ultimate truth of the oneness of Brahman, and one's true identity as Atman-Brahman. This culminates in what Adi Shankara refers to as anubhava , immediate intuition, a direct awareness which is construction-free, and not construction-filled. It

2628-443: The "strange irregularity of rhythm in the sixth bar" of this movement. Robert Schumann 's song "Ich hab' im Traum geweinet" from his song cycle Dichterliebe uses silence to convey an almost gothic ambiance, suggesting the darkness of the grave where the dreaming poet imagines his lover has been placed: "I wept in my dreams, I dreamt you were lying in your grave." In his book advising pianists and singers about interpretation,

2701-621: The Advaita-tradition by then had accepted yogic samadhi as a means to knowledge, explicitly incorporating elements from the yogic tradition and texts like the Yoga Vasistha and the Bhagavata Purana , culminating in Swami Vivekananda 's full embrace and propagation of Yogic samadhi as an Advaita means of knowledge and liberation. In the 19th century, due to the influence of Vidyaranya 's Sarvadarśanasaṅgraha ,

2774-732: The Indian traditions of religious philosophy and practice which accept the authority of the Vedas. The various schools of Vedanta aim to harmonise the diverging views presented in the Prasthantrayi , the Principal Upanishads, along with the Brahma Sutras and the Bhagavad Gitā , offering an integrated body of textual interpretations and religious practices which aim at the attainment of moksha , release or liberation from transmigratory existence. "Samkhya

2847-506: The brasses blare, and out of the trombones' awesome processional grows a steady roar … the big gongs the tam-tam beaten in a long and powerful resonance, shattering and echoing across mountains and along valleys. This is music of the high hills, music for vast spaces: 'The hour is coming when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God'. We can feel the awe and the majesty of the High Alps and

2920-426: The desires, not the emotions, not the ego, nor the dualistic mind, but the introspective, inwardly self-conscious "on-looker" ( saksi ), which is in reality completely disconnected from the non-Atman. The jivatman or individual self is a mere reflection of singular Atman in a multitude of apparent individual bodies. It is "not an individual subject of consciousness," but the same in each person and identical to

2993-520: The divine, the ultimate reality, or one's own true self, one's divine nature. Many religious traditions imply the importance of being quiet and still in mind and spirit for transformative and integral spiritual growth to occur. In Christianity, there is the silence of contemplative prayer such as centering prayer and Christian meditation ; in Islam, there are the wisdom writings of the Sufis who insist on

Silence (disambiguation) - Misplaced Pages Continue

3066-527: The ending of Les Noces as follows: "As the voices cease singing, pools of silence come flooding in between the measured strokes of the bell chord, and the music dies away in a miraculously fresh and radiant close." John Paynter (1970, p. 24) vividly conveys how silence contributes to the titanic impact of the third section of Messiaen 's orchestral work Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum (1964): Woodwinds jump, growl and shriek. Silence. Eight solemn bell strokes echo and die. Again silence. Suddenly

3139-457: The equilibrium is disturbed. From this pradhana then evolves the material universe, distinct from purusha , thereby postulating purusha as the efficient cause of all existence, and prakriti as its material cause or origin. While closely related to Samkhya , the Advaita Vedānta tradition rejects this dualism, instead stating that Reality cannot evolve from an inert, consciousness- and intelligence-less principle or essence. Brahman, which

3212-792: The feigned madness of Prince Hamlet through abrupt and unpredictable pauses that interrupt the flow of the music. The reggae band Black Slate had a hit in 1980 with the song Amigo . The instrumental introduction features sudden silences before the voice enters . Advaita Vedanta Traditional Shaivism/Tantra/Nath New movements Kashmir Shaivism Gaudapada Adi Shankara Advaita-Yoga Nath Kashmir Shaivism Neo-Vedanta Inchegeri Sampradaya Contemporary Shaivism/Tantra/Nath Neo-Advaita Hinduism Buddhism Modern Advaita Vedanta Neo-Vedanta Advaita Vedanta ( / ʌ d ˈ v aɪ t ə v ɛ ˈ d ɑː n t ə / ; Sanskrit : अद्वैत वेदान्त , IAST : Advaita Vedānta )

3285-402: The great churches. The instrumental sounds are vast the silences are deep. The words of St John are alive in the music, and through these sounds Messiaen reveals himself and his vision. An extreme example from 1952 is 4′33″ , an experimental musical work by avant-garde composer John Cage , incorporating ambient sounds not foreseeable by the composer. Though first performed on the piano ,

3358-546: The group. Some social animal species communicate the signal of potential danger by stopping contact calls and freezing, without the use of alarm calls , through silence. Charles Darwin wrote about this in relation with wild horse and cattle. Jordania has further suggested that human humming could have been a contact method that early humans used to avoid silence. According to his suggestion, humans find prolonged silence distressing (suggesting danger to them). This may help explain why lone humans in relative sonic isolation feel

3431-437: The identity of jivan-ātman and Brahman , destroys or makes null avidya ('false knowledge'), and results in liberation . According to Shankara, taking a subitist position, moksha is attained at once when the mahavakyas , articulating the identity of Atman and Brahman , are understood. According to the contemporary Advaita tradition, knowledge of Atman-Brahman is obtained gradually, by svādhyāya , study of

3504-525: The ignorance ( avidyā ) regarding one's true identity by revealing that (jiv)Ātman is non-different from immortal Brahman . In a narrow sense Advaita Vedanta is the scholarly tradition belonging to the orthodox Hindu Vedānta tradition, with works written in Sanskrit; in a broader sense it refers to a medieval and modern syncretic tradition, upholding traditional Hindu values and culture, blending Vedānta with Yoga and other traditions and producing works in vernacular. The earliest Advaita writings are

3577-439: The importance of Advaita Vedānta was overemphasized by Western scholarship , and Advaita Vedānta came to be regarded as the paradigmatic example of Hindu spirituality, despite the numerical dominance of theistic Bhakti -oriented religiosity. In modern times, Advaita views appear in various Neo-Vedānta movements. The word Advaita is a composite of two Sanskrit words: Advaita is often translated as "non-duality," but

3650-422: The importance of finding silence within. In Buddhism , the descriptions of silence and allowing the mind to become silent are implied as a feature of spiritual enlightenment . In Hinduism, including the teachings of Advaita Vedanta and the many paths of yoga, teachers insist on the importance of silence, Mauna , for inner growth. Ramana Maharishi , a revered Hindu sage, said, "The only language able to express

3723-400: The isolated). It is also called māyāvāda by Vaishnava opponents, akin to Madhyamaka Buddhism , due to their insistence that phenomena ultimately lack an inherent essence or reality, According to Richard King, a professor of Buddhist and Asian studies, the term Advaita first occurs in a recognizably Vedantic context in the prose of Mandukya Upanishad . According to Frits Staal ,

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3796-481: The material world? Third, if Brahman is ananda ('bliss'), why did the empirical world of sufferings arise? The Brahma Sutras do not answer these philosophical queries, and later Vedantins including Shankara had to resolve them. To solve these questions, Shankara introduced the concept of "Unevolved Name-and-Form," or primal matter corresponding to Prakriti , from which the world evolves, coming close to Samkhya dualism. Shankara's notion of "Unevolved Name-and-Form"

3869-457: The middle of the chorus 'Have lightnings and thunders …' in Bach 's St. Matthew Passion ": After the pause, the music continues to the words: "Open up the fiery bottomless pit, O hell!" The silence is intended to communicate a momentary sensation of terror, of staring into unfathomable darkness. Another example of a dramatic silence comes in the "rest full of tension" at the climactic ending of

3942-520: The monistic ideas already present in the Upanishads. In contrast, states Milne, it is misleading to call Advaita Vedānta "monistic," since this confuses the "negation of difference" with "conflation into one." Advaita is a negative term (a-dvaita), states Milne, which denotes the "negation of a difference," between subject and object, or between perceiver and perceived. According to Deutsch, Advaita Vedānta teaches monistic oneness, however without

4015-434: The most famous, surely the most commented-on, single phrase of music ever written." His strategic use of silences between phrases intensifies the troubled ambiguity of the music: "The chord that fills the ensuing silence in the listener's inner ear… is the unstated – indeed never to be stated, and ultimately needless to be stated – tonic of that key." Some of the most effective musical silences are very short, lasting barely

4088-532: The most prominent exponent of the Advaita Vedānta tradition, though some of the most prominent Advaita-propositions come from other Advaitins, and his early influence has been questioned. Adi Shankara emphasized that, since Brahman is ever-present, Brahman-knowledge is immediate and requires no 'action' or 'doership', that is, striving (to attain) and effort. Nevertheless, the Advaita tradition, as represented by Mandana Misra and others, also prescribes elaborate preparatory practice, including contemplation of

4161-465: The multiplicity premise of alternate monism theories. According to Jacqueline Suthren Hirst, Adi Shankara positively emphasizes "oneness" premise in his Brahma-sutra Bhasya 2.1.20, attributing it to all the Upanishads. Nicholson states Advaita Vedānta contains realistic strands of thought, both in its oldest origins and in Shankara's writings. Vedānta is one of the six classical Hindu darśanas ,

4234-481: The nature of Atman/Brahman." This truth is established from a literal reading of selected parts of the oldest Principal Upanishads and Brahma Sutras , and is also found in parts of the Bhagavad Gitā and numerous other Hindu texts, and is regarded to be self-evident. Great effort is made to show the correctness of this reading, and its compatibility with reason and experience, by criticizing other systems of thought. Vidya , correct knowledge or understanding of

4307-405: The ontological criterion: Absolute and relative reality are valid and true in their respective contexts, but only from their respective particular perspectives. John Grimes explains this Advaita doctrine of absolute and relative truth with the example of light and darkness. From the sun's perspective, it neither rises nor sets, there is no darkness, and "all is light". From the perspective of

4380-410: The origin of the world, which declared phenomenal reality to be an illusion , became the dominant explanation, with which the primacy of Atman/Brahman can be maintained. A main question in all schools of Vedanta is the relation between the individual self ( jiva ) and Atman / Brahman . As Shankara and his followers regard Atman/Brahman to be the ultimate Real, jivanatman is "ultimately [to be] of

4453-441: The pianist Gerald Moore stresses the need to fully observe the precisely notated rests , especially in the fourth bar above "where nothing is happening, that is to say nothing except a silence, a pregnant silence which, if shortened, dissipates the suffering it is intended to convey." Much has been said about the harmony of the opening to Wagner 's opera Tristan und Isolde , which Taruskin (2010, p. 540) calls "perhaps

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4526-472: The piece was composed for any instrument or instruments and is structured in three movements . The length of each movement is not fixed by the composer, but the total length of the combination of three movements is. The score instructs the performer(s) to remain silent throughout the piece. There are telling examples of the use of silence in jazz . A frequently used effect, known as " stop-time ", places silences at moments where listeners or dancers might expect

4599-409: The quality of consciousness." According to Shankara, it is self-evident and "a matter not requiring any proof" that Atman, the 'I', is 'as different as light is from darkness' from non-Atman, the 'you' or 'that', the material world whose characteristics are mistakenly superimposed on Atman, resulting in notions as "I am this" and "This is mine." One's real self is not the constantly changing body, not

4672-402: The relation between the plural, complex, changing phenomenal world and the Brahman in which it substantially subsists." According to Mayeda, following the post-Shankara predicate sat-cit-ananda , three problems emerge. First, how did Brahman, which is sat ('existence'), without any distinction, become manifold material universe? Second, how did Brahman, which is cit ('consciousness'), create

4745-409: The rhetorician. Joseph Jordania has suggested that in social animals (including humans ), silence can be a sign of danger. Many social animals produce seemingly haphazard sounds which are known as contact calls . These are a mixture of various sounds, accompanying the group's everyday business (for example, foraging , feeding ), and they are used to maintain audio contact with the members of

4818-519: The same one Reality and one Truth is explained or experienced from two different perspectives. As they developed these theories, Advaita Vedānta scholars were influenced by some ideas from the Nyaya , Samkhya and Yoga schools of Hindu philosophy. These theories have not enjoyed universal consensus among Advaitins, and various competing ontological interpretations have flowered within the Advaita tradition. Ātman ( IAST : ātman, Sanskrit : आत्मन्)

4891-435: The same way as to sounds—supporting the perceptual view that humans literally hear silence. Silence may become an effective rhetorical practice when people choose to be silent for a specific purpose. It has not merely been recognized as a theory but also as a phenomenon with practical advantages. When silence becomes rhetorical, it is intentional since it reflects a meaning. Rhetorical silence targets an audience rather than

4964-428: The self and of the Vedic texts, which consists of four stages of samanyasa : virāga ('renunciation'), sravana ('listening to the teachings of the sages'), manana ('reflection on the teachings') and nididhyāsana , introspection and profound and repeated meditation on the mahavakyas , selected Upanishadic statements such as tat tvam asi ('that art thou' or 'you are That') which are taken literal, and form

5037-470: The silences are more palpable. Keith Swanwick (1979, p. 70) is enchanted by the "playfulness and humour" engendered by the stop-time effects in Jelly Roll Morton 's solo piano recording of The Crave (1939): "If we listen to this, tapping or clicking along with the beat, we shalt find ourselves surprised by two patches of silence near the end. The beat goes on but the sound stops. The effect

5110-415: The specific states of individuated phenomenality." Ātman, states Eliot Deutsch, is the "pure, undifferentiated, supreme power of awareness", it is more than thought, it is a state of being, that which is conscious and transcends subject-object divisions and momentariness. According to Ram-Prasad, "it" is not an object, but "the irreducible essence of being [as] subjectivity, rather than an objective self with

5183-447: The victims or casualties of such an event is a commemorative moment of silence . Argumentative silence is the rhetorical practice of saying nothing when an opponent in a debate expects something to be said. Poorly executed, it can be offensive, like refusing to answer a direct question. A well-timed silence can throw an opponent off and give the debater the upper hand. An argument from silence ( Latin : argumentum ex silentio )

5256-475: The whole truth is silence." Perkey Avot, the Jewish Sages guide for living, states that, "Tradition is a safety fence to Torah, tithing a safety fence to wealth, vows a safety fence for abstinence; a safety fence for wisdom ... is silence." In some traditions of Quakerism , communal silence is the usual context of worship meetings, in patient expectancy for the divine to speak in the heart and mind. In

5329-460: Was not adopted by the later Advaita tradition; instead, the later tradition turned avidya into a metaphysical principle, namely mulavidya or "root ignorance," a metaphysical substance which is the "primal material cause of the universe ( upadana )." In this view, Brahman alone is real, and the phenomenal world is an appearance ( maya ) or "an unreal manifestation ( vivarta ) of Brahman." Prakasatmans (13th c.) defense of vivarta to explain

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