“The silence between the notes is as vital because the notes themselves.” ~Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
After I was youthful, I assumed data was one thing you possibly can seize—one thing you possibly can write down, measure, and show. I believed that to grasp one thing, I needed to clarify it. And for a very long time, I attempted.
However then, life—by movie, by music, by lengthy conversations with individuals whose knowledge couldn’t be present in books—taught me one thing else: probably 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 extensive, and silence isn’t empty however filled with presence. I had traveled there to doc a bunch of elders who carried the historical past of their individuals 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 group. 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 the bushes. The river murmured its everlasting tune. In that quiet, there was one thing deeper than speech, one thing that pulsed with which means.
Later, after I performed the footage for a colleague, they requested, “However what’s he saying?”
I needed to reply, The whole lot.
Listening Past Phrases
In case you’ve ever felt just like the world strikes too quick, like individuals are talking over one another as a substitute of actually listening to, you then already understand how uncommon true listening is. We stay in a time when everybody needs to be heard, however few know methods 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 burden behind somebody’s silence, the emotion of their breath earlier than they communicate.
I didn’t all the time know methods to pay attention this fashion. In my early years as a filmmaker, I centered on what was seen—the shot, the framing, the dialogue. However over time, I noticed that probably the most highly effective moments weren’t all the time what was mentioned aloud. It was the look between two individuals who had identified one another ceaselessly. It was the way in which somebody’s palms trembled earlier than telling a troublesome story. It was the pause between sentences, the place one thing unstated begged to be understood.
This type of listening—deep listening—is a ability, similar to some other. And like several ability, it may be practiced. It requires persistence. 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’s an previous educating in Nada Yoga, the yoga of sound, that claims silence isn’t an absence, however a vibration. It’s a resonance that enables which means to unfold.
I’ve felt this within the modifying room, chopping collectively scenes, realizing that what strikes individuals isn’t 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 be aware 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 each one you are able to do is sit with them in silence.
That silence isn’t 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 those who this sort of data—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 type of data that’s felt greater than written. The type of scholarship that comes by movie, by sound, by expertise. There, data is measured in citations, in publications, in issues that may be counted. However how do you rely a pause? How do you measure the impression 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 know that presence—the power to be totally right here, totally conscious—is its personal type of intelligence.
And right here’s what I would like you to know: You don’t need to be a filmmaker or a scholar to develop this ability. You don’t need to journey to distant mountains or sit in lengthy hours of meditation. You simply have to start out paying consideration.
How you can Pay attention Deeply
If you wish to study to pay attention—to really pay attention—do this:
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. Pay attention with out planning your reply.
Too usually, we solely half-listen as a result of we’re already fascinated with what we’ll say subsequent. As an alternative, attempt simply absorbing what’s being mentioned. Let the response come naturally.
3. Take note of the silences.
In music, the rests are simply as vital because the notes. In dialog, the pauses carry which means. Discover what occurs in these areas.
4. Be snug with not figuring out.
Among the most profound moments in life don’t include clear solutions. Be open to sitting with uncertainty.
5. Observe with sound.
Spend time listening to the world round you—actually listening. Shut your eyes. Discover what number of layers of sound exist without delay. The wind. The hum of a distant automotive. The rhythm of your individual respiratory.
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’s worth in the way in which you expertise the world.
You don’t have to elucidate every part. You don’t need to put all of it into phrases.
Generally, probably the most highly effective issues we all know—the issues that change us—exist within the house between phrases.
And when you ever end up doubting whether or not your means of seeing, of listening, of feeling has a spot on this world, keep in mind this:
Among the biggest knowledge isn’t spoken.
Among the strongest messages are by no means written.
And typically, the easiest way to grasp is to easily be current.
About Tony Collins
Tony Collins, EdD, MFA is a documentary filmmaker, instructor, musician, author, and guide with forty years of expertise. His work explores inventive expression, scholarly rigor, and nonfiction storytelling throughout the USA, Central America, Asia, and the UAE. In 2025, he’s self-publishing Inventive 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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