Silence can be without strictness. Without prohibitions. Without hush. Without 'shhh!'‘
It can be a loving invitation to play with releasing the simultaneously pleasurable and painful attachment to internal and external noise that is part of our common drug addiction.

There is probably no one silence, rather we each have our own. And it is not measured in decibels, it has a different scale. A silence retreat is an opportunity to explore one's own silence – alone and in the company of others.

There may be sounds on a silent retreat, even loud sounds. Maybe the wind is noisy, maybe the sea is roaring, maybe the music is pounding and thundering. A retreat is not necessarily solemn, at least not self-serious, there can be both pressure and a slap on the silence.

And then perhaps there is still a background of subdued silence. A glimpse of inner undisturbed equilibrium. An experience of the pause between the sounds. Of the great silence behind the music.
The feeling that silence is finally speaking.

Snapshots from this summer's silence retreat, Silence Yoga, at Øster Løkke by the North Sea: