The Cave

There’s a secret in the silence

A paradox is often pointed out, seemingly as a proof that a certain statement or a thing cannot right or correct. Yet as one ventures down the road of life and looks at what we call reality, paradoxes keep coming along.

If I bother to be bothered by paradoxes, they can lead me into uncomfortable places where what I know seems to be contradicted – a humbling and unsettling moment. Beyond this feeling of unease, though, lies something which is larger than the world I came from. It’s a bit like going into the pitch black dark of a cave. Who knows what secret is waiting there for me…

Chapters:

• 00:00:00 Intro
• 00:00:26 The Cave – Solo
• 00:02:43 The Face of the Deep holds a Secret
• 00:09:36 The Cave (Remix)
• 00:13:37 Outro

Transcript

The Cave

I found a cave
In which I ventured
Just beyond
All bustling life

Here stripped bare
Of all my knowing
In the darkness found myself

As I died to all my senses
All supposed of who I am
Waits a dribble
Smells the must
Of this great womb
That bears me
As all it bore
As I am borne

Water wells in its own rhythm
All engulfed is where I am
Heart beats warm
In this pure darkness
Being held in silent arms

No place left
That needs my going
Just the humming sound of Now
Beyond me is what holds my knowing
All is flowing
Here I am

©️ Laughing Brook/Peter Müller 2025

The Face of the Deep holds a Secret

In a beautiful German book I own, all dedicated to silence, people from the most diverse walks of life talk about how they experience silence in the thing they do as their profession and passion. In one chapter, cave researcher Hazel Barton reflects on what it is like to enter a cave. In the many caves she researched she found that each cave is different. The way it sounds inside and reflects the noises, the way it smells, even the way it breathes – yes, caves breathe, which is one way of them interacting with the world outside. She even remarks that caves have a personality. Some make you feel welcome, while others want you to leave them alone. Does that sound a bit far out? Well, it is on trait of people who dive deep – no pun intended – into a subject that they discover nuances and characteristics of their thing that completely elude the rest of us. Wether it be the intricacies of constructing the perfect valve, or the most esoteric nuances of putting paint of a canvas, or trying to understand the quality and character of something like caves.

Well now, caves – back to caves. So despite of all the differences between individual caves, there are of course similarities. Once you’ve entered a cave, there is the absence of light. The sense of smell is lost soon, as the nose gets attuned to the smell of the cave and then doesn’t register it anymore. And unless there is a strong wind or running water, it is absolute silence. As Hazel Barton notes, once this silence envelops you, the sounds of your body seems to become louder and louder – the flow of your breath, the beating of your heart, the gurgling of your digestion. It’s a curious thing that when the outside world ceases to touch, the one on the inside becomes so much more present. She describes a sense of quiet that envelops her completely and makes her feel embedded into this world of silence. „This silence,“ she says, „feels like belonging“. 

When I enter silence and allow myself to be there, the first thing I notice is this falling away of all the things around me I take for granted, all the things that make up ”normality“ for me. This absence is soon replaced by an awareness of things inside me that seem just as ubiquitous and omnipresent. Buddhists call this cheekily the monkey mind with its never ending chatter, always grasping for the next idea, story, motion or thought. Yet in-between the chatter, or shall I say beyond it, there is something deeper, a silence or stillness that is even more complete and absolute than all the chatter of the mind, all the welling of emotions. Once I stop trying to do, to perform, and just agree to let myself fall into this silence, this stillness, this emptiness, it opens up like the vast and majestic space of a cathedral. The most curious thing about it is that, while it is all empty, it is full. While it is completely still, it is vividly alive. While it is void of anything  , it seems to carry everything inside of it. 

This place, where all paradoxes harmoniously flow into one … well, how would you call that? One truth? One perspective? One reality? I like the word that is being used in Buddhist descriptions – they call it space. Space is something that is empty, yet it contains all things. It is nothing in and of itself, and in being so, it can be everything. In its own peculiar way, that is what a cave invites to – space.

Outro:

My name is Laughing Brook, I am a poet, dancer, mystic, nature coach and man whisperer. 

If you like what you’ve been hearing and would want to support me, please leave a positive rating and a comment on which ever platform you are listing to this podcast. This helps others to become aware of it. Share it with friends. And most of all – come back for the next episode. 

This podcast will continue without any fixed schedule, as life happens and verses come. So please subscribe to be in the loop and check back occasionally for any new poetry. For more info about me and things beyond this podcast, please check out laughingbrook.net. Thank you for listening, and – keep on flowing, bumping and jumping with the stream of life.