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“The silence between the notes is as essential because the notes themselves.” ~Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Once I was youthful, I assumed information was one thing you could possibly seize—one thing you could possibly write down, measure, and show. I believed that to know one thing, I needed to clarify it. And for a very long time, I attempted.
However then, life—by way of movie, by way of music, by way of lengthy conversations with folks whose knowledge couldn’t be present in books—taught me one thing else: essentially the most highly effective truths don’t all the time are available phrases. They exist within the house between them.
I realized this lesson within the mountains, the place the sky stretches large, and silence shouldn’t be empty however filled with presence. I had traveled there to doc a bunch of elders who carried the historical past of their folks of their voices, of their tales, within the songs they sang to the youthful generations.
One elder, particularly, stood out. He didn’t communicate a lot, however when he did, the others listened. Alongside his fellow elders, he would chant in a rhythmic, sing-song cadence, weaving the origins of the universe into the material of their small mountain neighborhood. However what struck me most wasn’t his voice—it was his silence.
Because the digital camera rolled, he sat in stillness. The wind whispered by way of the timber. The river murmured its everlasting tune. In that quiet, there was one thing deeper than speech, one thing that pulsed with that means.
Later, once I performed the footage for a colleague, they requested, “However what’s he saying?”
I wished to reply, Every thing.
Listening Past Phrases
When you’ve ever felt just like the world strikes too quick, like persons are talking over one another as a substitute of actually listening to, then you definately already know the way uncommon true listening is. We stay in a time when everybody needs to be heard, however few know learn how to pay attention.
Listening—actual listening—isn’t nearly listening to phrases. It’s about feeling presence. It’s about noticing what isn’t being mentioned. It’s about sensing the load behind somebody’s silence, the emotion of their breath earlier than they communicate.
I didn’t all the time know learn how to pay attention this manner. In my early years as a filmmaker, I targeted on what was seen—the shot, the framing, the dialogue. However over time, I noticed that essentially the most highly effective moments weren’t all the time what was mentioned aloud. It was the look between two individuals who had recognized one another perpetually. It was the best way somebody’s fingers trembled earlier than telling a troublesome story. It was the pause between sentences, the place one thing unstated begged to be understood.
This sort of listening—deep listening—is a ability, identical to another. And like every ability, it may be practiced. It requires endurance. It requires presence. And it requires a willingness to be quiet your self, to let go of the necessity to reply, clarify, or management the dialog.
The Silence That Speaks
There may be an outdated instructing in Nada Yoga, the yoga of sound, that claims silence shouldn’t be an absence, however a vibration. It’s a resonance that permits that means to unfold.
I’ve felt this within the enhancing room, chopping collectively scenes, realizing that what strikes folks shouldn’t be the dialogue however the areas between it—the quiet earlier than the revelation, the second of stillness earlier than the reality lands. I’ve felt it in music, when a musician permits a word to fade simply lengthy sufficient for it to sink into the listener’s bones.
And I’ve felt it in life, in conversations the place somebody shares one thing so uncooked, so deeply private, that every one you are able to do is sit with them in silence.
That silence shouldn’t be empty. It is filled with acknowledgment, of understanding, of respect.
The Energy of Presence
One of many biggest challenges I confronted in my work was convincing folks that this type of information—this capacity to sit down with silence, to note, to be current—is simply as invaluable as details and figures, as theories and evaluation.
Academia, the place I spent a lot of my life, doesn’t all the time acknowledge the form of information that’s felt greater than written. The form of scholarship that comes by way of movie, by way of sound, by way of expertise. There, information is measured in citations, in publications, in issues that may be counted. However how do you depend a pause? How do you measure the influence of a shared silence?
I’ve spent years making an attempt to advocate for a broader understanding of what it means to know one thing. To grasp that presence—the flexibility to be totally right here, totally conscious—is its personal form of intelligence.
And right here’s what I would like you to know: You don’t should be a filmmaker or a scholar to develop this ability. You don’t should journey to distant mountains or sit in lengthy hours of meditation. You simply have to start out paying consideration.
Hear Deeply
If you wish to be taught to pay attention—to really pay attention—do that:
1. Pause earlier than responding.
Subsequent time somebody speaks to you, don’t rush to fill the house. Let their phrases settle. Discover what else is there—their physique language, their expression, what they aren’t saying.
2. Hear with out planning your reply.
Too typically, we solely half-listen as a result of we’re already interested by what we’ll say subsequent. As an alternative, strive simply absorbing what’s being mentioned. Let the response come naturally.
3. Take note of the silences.
In music, the rests are simply as essential because the notes. In dialog, the pauses carry that means. Discover what occurs in these areas.
4. Be snug with not understanding.
A number of the most profound moments in life don’t include clear solutions. Be open to sitting with uncertainty.
5. Apply with sound.
Spend time listening to the world round you—actually listening. Shut your eyes. Discover what number of layers of sound exist directly. The wind. The hum of a distant automobile. The rhythm of your personal respiration.
The extra you develop your capacity to pay attention, the extra you’ll perceive—not nearly others, however about your self.
A Totally different Sort of Figuring out
I write this now, not as a name to arms, however as an invite.
To the artists, the thinkers, those who really feel deeply however don’t all the time have the phrases—know that there’s a place for you. There may be worth in the best way you expertise the world.
You don’t have to elucidate every part. You don’t should put all of it into phrases.
Generally, essentially the most highly effective issues we all know—the issues that change us—exist within the house between phrases.
And for those who ever end up doubting whether or not your manner of seeing, of listening, of feeling has a spot on this world, keep in mind this:
A number of the biggest knowledge isn’t spoken.
A number of the strongest messages are by no means written.
And typically, the easiest way to know is to easily be current.
About Tony CollinsTony Collins, EdD, MFA is a documentary filmmaker, instructor, musician, author, and marketing consultant with forty years of expertise. His work explores artistic expression, scholarly rigor, and nonfiction storytelling throughout the USA, Central America, Asia, and the UAE. In 2025, he’s self-publishing Artistic Scholarship: Rethinking Analysis in Movie and New Media on Amazon, difficult conventional tutorial evaluation in movie and new media. Web site: anthonycollinsfilm.com
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