The Pool of Silence: The Gateway to True Creative Flow

Discover how stillness becomes the wellspring of inspired creation, fulfillment, and divine expression.

If I were to give anyone a summary of how to live a fulfilled life, it would be in the phrase, “Become a Pool of Silence.” For many, this will sound strange, but if you study the mystics, the KNOWERS of God, you will find that most of them, toward the end of their lives, retreat into silence.

Such was the case with my spiritual teacher Osho (Bhagwan Shree Rajaneesh) who later in his life, after many years of giving morning lectures in his ashram in Poona, retreated into silence. I loved sitting in the meditation hall (1979) listening to him become a flow of words taken from whatever tradition might unfold. It might be Zen, Zorba the Greek, Patanjali, Jesus Christ (The Mustard Seed), or the Buddha, and many more.

Silence is the language of God, all else is poor translation — Jalal al-Din Rumi, Sufi Mystic (1207–1273)

Creativity and the Stillness Within

I love the mystics. They are my teachers from all traditions and none. These KNOWERS of God invite you, invite me, to be still and KNOW the experience that is direct union with “I AM.” They are not theologians. They get in trouble with their established church or religion because no one is supposed to be in direct communion with the Divine. You have to be a believer about the possibility of a God. This is the God you feel separate from rather than the God you are at one with (At-One-Ment).

All religious traditions fear their mystics because when you KNOW, you are no longer a believer. It doesn't mean you stop the practice of worship, but it does mean that the religious authority declared by the established church is no longer your authority. There is no longer the need for an intermediary. They're out of a job, and for many, it means a loss of status and a loss of control.

Rather than talking, I love writing and recording. I start my day in the early morning in a pool of silence that is both inner and outer. Here in Cordressagagh, most times of the day and night, there is a deep silence. My twin brother says he couldn't stand this kind of quietude. I love it. I do a lot of writing, and the creative ideas flow from this silence that I recognize as the emptiness that is forever full.

Only in silence can the soul hear the whispers of the Divine — St. John of the Cross, Christian Mystic (1542–1591)

Surrendering to the Flow of Creation

The idea of being empty, to the Western way of thinking, is an anathema. Who wants to be empty? It would make one depressed. The reality, which becomes my deepening reality, is that you become happy for no reason. A better word for emptiness is silence, but this is not simply silence as an absence of noise. It is a silence of absence where you become available to the Presence that then unfolds creatively through you and fulfills you. Is that not a wonderful invitation? Is that not a wonderful way of BEING in the world?

In all my Substack newspapers that I love having flow from this pool of silence (Bringing Heaven to Earth, Unfolding Creativity, A Yoga Life, and Mindful Gardening), my core invitation to any unfolding creative is to explore the journey into silence—the stillness where you are graced to be empty and available for feeling fulfilled.

If you are to have a chance of living a life aligned with what I call Love’s Purpose (Awaking the Heart – 21 Ways to Follow Love’s Purpose), as it is intended to be expressed through you, then you have to become a pool of silence. Out of this silence begins a love affair with Presence. You begin to become a free flow and outpouring, but you are not doing it.

Be still and know that I am God — Psalm 46:10, The Bible

You're not wrecking your brain for ideas that, in many cases, are old. You live In Tune with the Infinite (Ralph Waldo Trine), and you are allowing. This is prayer. This is unfolding creation as it is designed to pour through you. This is you flowing like a river, amazed by its own unfolding (John O'Donohue).

Are you prepared to be that magnificent? If so, then leave a comment to affirm your intention to allow the Secret of Secrets to be inside you once again.

Let me end this week’s Unfolding Creativity with a recording I originally featured on my website Yoga Journey for Life called A Pool of Silence.

I hope to begin to record this kind of invitation later in the year. Help me share this invitation with others, and in this way, you invite Heaven on Earth to be expressed through you as a willing channel for the Purpose of Love. It doesn’t get better than that because BEING In Tune with the Infinite is beyond better or worse.

Tony Cuckson Cordressagagh, Ireland