We live in a hectic world. There is a constant bombardment of noise in this world. When you get into the car you turn on the radio, and they’re either blaring news or music at you. When you come home you turn on the television and it is constantly talking, or you put on the phonograph and music comes out at you. When you walk the streets, you’re bombarded by advertising signs constantly trying to get hold of your consciousness, constantly trying to influence you to act in some particular way or another.
The world is full of noise. And in some parts of the world this noise is even worse; the explosion of bombs is going on all the time, the sound of gunfire is going on all the time. In certain neighborhoods within the United States it’s dangerous to walk outside after it gets dark because you could get shot.
There’s this constant turmoil, this constant noise that goes on endlessly. And there’s also a different kind of noise; there’s the external noises, the ones we hear constantly bombarding us, but then there’s also the internal noise. The noise that goes on inside of us that’s also constantly trying to gain our attention and to influence us, the noise that goes on because of the activities of our mind, this ceaseless, endless chatter that goes on inside of ourselves, not always with positive intentions, not always with positive qualities, not always with things that help us. Very often this noise and this chatter are very negative for our being and for our existence.
People often run away from the world to get away from the noise. They run to caves where they can meet the stillness. They run to monasteries where speech isn’t even allowed, where people take vows of silence, where they don’t talk.
And what’s the point of running away from the external noise? Well. People believe, at least some do, that if you can stop the external noise, you can begin to deal with the internal noise. As long as you’re dealing with the external noise all the time, you don’t have time to turn inward and to begin to deal with the internal noise.
The internal noise is a reaction to everything that goes on in your daily existence. It’s a constant re-examining what went on, and a constant holding onto certain things that have somehow bothered you. Things that you believe need resolution before you can find peace. Herein lies one of the dilemmas in existence; people believe that there has to be resolution to certain externalities before peace can be found. So when they can’t resolve the externalities outside, which is often, they begin to be troubled by those unresolved situations on the inside. And “if I would have… if I could have… if this had happened this way… if this had happened that way… if only…” and that noise goes on and on; the constant sound of regret, the constant sound of second guessing, the constant internal interplay with external circumstances; the constant internal interplay with external circumstances.
Now somewhere, somehow, we have to conclude that what Allah gives us is a blessing, and what Allah gives us is something that is going to help us…
