So in this writing, I want to share with you how I was able to create a strong connection to Silence despite living fully in this stressful modern society.

My practice has turned into live streams here on youtube for almost 2 years now.

But I did not start this way.

When I started, I felt very overwhelmed by the sheer number of content that is out there regarding meditation.

It feels like there is a marketplace for mindfulness where you're sold an endless supply of techniques.

You’re told to watch your breath, repeat a mantra, visualize your dreams, scan your body and with every new method, a new doubt arises: "Am I doing this right? Why isn't my mind quiet yet?"

Suddenly, the search for peace becomes stressful. You feel this unspoken pressure to perform your peace, to achieve a perfect moment of zen.

And that’s because the very idea of calm has been commercialized. The one place that promised you silence has been again filled with noise.

And in this video, I'm going to show you how I have cut through the noise—bypassing it, or maybe transcending it—by building the one thing that matters:

A direct and strong connection to Silence. That is the true foundation, a living relationship with the intelligence of the universe. The ground truth from which everything of service—both to you, and to the world—can emerge.

Before we begin, a quick and important note: The ideas in this video come from my personal journey and are for philosophical exploration. They are not a substitute for professional medical advice. If you have concerns about your mental health, please make your well-being a priority and speak with a qualified medical professional.

The Modern Accelerated Society

So in order to create that strong connection, we have to be aware of the environment we're in. We have to clearly identify the force that is working against us.

And this is extremely important. Because our mind—our thought patterns, our reactions, the way it behaves—is almost entirely shaped by our environment. And when we don't understand the mechanics of that, we cannot find a way to navigate it well.

Because when you are trying to meditate, you are facing a strong force. It feels very uncomfortable, and this continues for many sessions over months and years. If you don’t know what causes it, you’re left with maximum frustration.

So because that is so important, I have a special name for it: I call it MAS.

MAS stands for Modern Accelerated Society. It is the invisible operating system of our modern world, and its single purpose is to accelerate.

I first got this insight from the work of a German sociologist named Hartmut Rosa, who diagnosed the core mechanics of our time.

(He wrote a book about it called "Social Acceleration" but he also has some talks on youtube. so if you like to dive in more on the scientific side, I highly recommend you to check him out.)

So his central idea is about the driving force of our society which he calls 'dynamic stabilization'—a system that has no choice but to accelerate just to keep itself alive.

If it doesn't accelerate, a lot of problems will arise.

For example, without acceleration, the company you work for risks becoming obsolete, shareholder value decreases, your job is at risk, and the entire economy we rely on begins to contract and this can lead to a recession. The thing that every modern nation tries to avoid at all cost.

And these are just some examples in the field of our "economy" but this goes much deeper.

This accelerating force has become the dominant operating system for our interconnected world, running silently in the background and shaping nearly every aspect of our lives.

A Multigenerational Force

And it not only affected our lives but also the lives of the previous generation and the generation before that.

So this force is therefore multigenerational. This has started roughly 250 years ago with the invention of the steam engine in Great Britain. This marked the beginning of a new paradigm. First it started localized in Britain, then it s tarted to spread like a wildfire throughout the entire globe, fueled by the incremental inventions of the combustion engine, electricity, the computer, the internet, and now, artificial intelligence.

So on its way it transformed itself and became faster, stronger and bolder which we can experience today and it's going to accelerate even further with a speed humanity has yet to experience. Here is what Demis Hassabis has to say. He is the CEO of Deepmind that has created the leading AI Model Gemini.

"The thing that's gonna be harder to deal with this time around is that I think what we're gonna see is something like probably 10 times the impact the industrial revolution had but 10 times faster as well... So instead of a hundred years, it takes 10 years. And so that's gonna make it, you know, it's like 100X the impact and the speed combined. So that's what's I think gonna make it more difficult for society to deal with."

(Clip from "Demis Hassabis: Future of AI, Simulating Reality, Physics and Video Games | Lex Fridman Podcast #475" at 1:46:47)

So why I am telling you all of this?

Because it is directly correlated with how our brains are formed. Generally organisms are always living in relation with the environment. There is always a constant link between the mind and its surroundings and therefore in constant communication .

This principle is also called neuroplasticity. Our brains are constantly being physically re-shaped and re-wired by the environment we are in.

And because we are constantly connected to MAS, it is imprinting its pattern of speed and anxiety directly onto our neural pathways.

That earth-altering force has now deeply penetrated our minds.

And this process starts earlier than any of us realize. It's not just a feature of our adult lives; it has been shaping us since birth.

Those born 30 years ago entered a structure of MAS defined by the personal computer—where the speed of information suddenly became instantaneous.

Those born 15 years ago entered a structure of MAS defined by the smartphone—where social reality became a 24/7 digital stream.

And those born today are entering a structure of MAS defined by AI—where the stream itself is becoming intelligent.

But on a broader human scale, MAS is a brand new phenomenon. Our brains are still ancient hardware.

For nearly 300,000 years, they evolved for a world that was slow and mostly unchanging. We have only lived in our current, accelerated state for the last 250 years— that’s less than 0.1% of our existence.

And if we take into account that this current, hyper-digital form is even younger, it feels like humanity is currently caught in a heavy thunderstorm.

So when you sit in silence, you are not just facing your own thoughts. You are facing MAS in its full force, as it lives inside you.

And not knowing what you have to deal with creates a lot of problems and frustrations. I had to learn this the hard way. Its like facing Goliath but not knowing that it’s Goliath in the first place.

Forging a New Path

It was only when I fully embraced MAS as a force to actively work with—and abandoned the mainstream narrative of peace, zen, calm, even mindfulness or meditation, doing this and that with the mind—that I was able to build a strong and resilient connection to Silence.

Only then could I create a true counterbalance to this force, one that was individually tied to me and my circumstances.

I don’t mean to speak badly about how the space around meditation is right now, and I also want to add that my knowledge about these traditions is not very deep. I've never lived as a monk or studied them academically. I'm well aware that much of the original meaning gets distorted in translation when it reaches our current society. It gets even worse when average people pick it up and package it nicely for us to consume.

So when you practice according to these traditions and they help you, that’s really great, and I encourage you to keep it that way. But in this video, I only want to help those who haven’t been able to build a sustainable and deep practice through them—like me. I’ve read several books and listened to many talks, but none of them come close to the depth of practicing with Silence. Later in the video, I’ll show you how I personally approach this practice.

I prefer a direct and personal experience with Silence—and Silence only—with no traditional biases, because the deeper I looked into the ancient ways, the less and less relevant they became to the reality of my life in this modern environment.

Every tradition around Buddhism that I’ve come to know is a miracle and still shines brightly to this day. I am very grateful for that. But for me, this is just how far they can go when multiple profound traditions meet together in this kind of environment. It’s messy but beautiful at the same time.

It has led me to the doorstep. This alone is already very profound. Then the next natural step for me was to walk through the door by myself—and that is the purpose of it.

I had to depart on my own terms, and I have found shore. Transcendence of inner turmoil in a new territory is not achieved by a guide from a different time and place, nor by the same mindset that created MAS in the first place. I have to sail on my own with something far more profound—something that exceeds the very operating system of MAS.

And that is simply Silence—the ground truth I spoke of a t the very beginning. I believe that most traditions are pointing to this very truth, only expressed in different ways. My purpose here is to simplify it into just the word “Silence” and point to it directly, without any interference or cultural biases. Because once you have a strong connection to Silence, it doesn’t matter anymore what you call it.

Now we can see that Silence is the central part of all traditions, around which culture and rituals are built. It’s like human-made containers—a safe route for humans to access Silence in a reliable way.

But the problem is that these containers are tightly woven into the societal structures of their time, so copying and pasting them into different societies is not going to work, especially not in ours.

What’s unique to our current structure is that we live in highly individualized micro-worlds. No person has the same lifestyle as someone else anymore. Technology has allowed for a degree of individualism humanity has never seen. We have our own lifestyles, beliefs, and preferences, and we are constantly bombarded with options to choose from—plus all of that is still subject to accelerated change.

This is creating millions of different mini-worlds existing side by side.

That’s why it’s important to build your own individual container around Silence based on your individual mini-world.

The Radiance of Silence

Why Silence?

I think it is very important to call Silence by its name directly and make it a major part of the practice, because Silence is what it has always been about. This is essentially what others have referred to as “Emptiness,” “Brahman,” or “the Tao.” So my intention here is simply to clarify it—to clear it of any noise and detach it from any cultural baggage. In other words, to clear the slate so that everyone can build their own true and individual containers on it.

Silence is a synonym for the intelligence of the universe.

I know that it sounds a little bit metaphysical, but with our current modern tools—mainly telescopes like the Hubble or James Webb—and also with the microscope, we can now see with our own eyes how vast reality is and it's really only in the last 100 years that humanity has gotten solid proof of this.

In the 1920s, Edwin Hubble discovered that the Milky Way is just one of many galaxies in the universe. And now we know there are billions of galaxies.

And what we see with our eyes is still a very tiny part of reality. There is infinitely more that we don't see.

So with this I think the following can be said about Silence:

Silence has witnessed the emergence of all religions, all cultures, all of humanity.

Silence has witnessed the emergence of first life, all animals, all dinosaurs, all living things, all elements, all science, and all of life.

Silence has witnessed the emergence of our planet, our sun, our galaxy, all galaxies combined, and the whole of our universe.

Silence is therefore at least 13.8 billion years old.

Why Radiance?

So this is just one half of the framework. The other half but equally important is to frame Silence as a radiant energy field. This connects Silence to the human consciousness by defining a specific relationship to the individual and this is one of an Exposure to the Radiance of Silence.

So hence the name: "The Radiance of Silence"

This is for me the leading and dominant mental model that has emerged from my practice in the context of MAS and has remained to this day.

In the past, I tried several other mental models like "Just Sitting," "Mindfulness Meditation," "Gratitude," "Loving-Kindness," etc., but naturally, over time, I have distanced myself from them.

When I ask myself—or when people ask me—what I am doing during my practice, it doesn’t feel right to say that I “meditate.” Even the titles I chose for my live streams, where I write “Just Sitting in Silence,” don’t truly describe the practice that I'm doing.

What I would say instead is that: "I expose myself to the Radiance of Silence" or "I practice Silence" if the first one is too long and it's obvious that it's about an exposure.

Because this specific frame makes a huge difference in how I approach the practice. It reframes it into a process of receiving instead of a discipline or performance. Let's take "Just Sitting" for example. "Just Sitting" can feel at least for me, cold a little bit, empty or like an act of endurance. But "exposing yourself to the Radiance of Silence" completely changes the feeling. It's like you're stepping out into the morning sun and you are about to receive the gift of light, warmth and energy.

It also frames Silence as an active partner rather than something passive in the background. If Silence is just an empty space, it can feel like that all the work falls on you, the practitioner. You have to be the "good observer," the "perfectly still one." But if Silence is radiant, then Silence itself is an active agent in your transformation. It is an intelligent, benevolent force that is doing the work with you at all times when you practice Silence, just like a living relationship with the very intelligence of the universe.

And this frame is especially important in the context of MAS, because MAS is still void of any profound influence of Silence, almost entirely dominated by the mind. Yet we can see that with the Mindfulness Marketplace, we are still at the very beginning.

What we need is a true, clear, and direct connection between MAS and Silence without distortions. And the frame of the Radiance of Silence provides exactly that. Its purpose is to open up a space where these two forces can meet.

And I also have a special name for that. I call it "The Intersection of MAS and Silence" or "IMS" for short.

The Intersection of MAS and Silence

IMS is the space that you open up when you expose yourself to The Radiance of Silence while living in MAS. This territory is of utmost importance because here your MAS-conditioned mind is going to meet the radiant intelligence of Silence.

Now I’ve come to the most important message I have for you:

Just by opening up that space is a heroic act in itself. This alone is already enough and of the highest meaning. You have overcome the forces of MAS and have brought the intelligence of silence to humanity.

And this is the point where it should end for everybody else except for you and Silence. This is uncharted territory—your uncharted territory. No one has ever explored this space.

You are now sailing with the infinite intelligence of Silence itself. No one has the authority to distort that connection any longer. Protect it at all costs. You are not alone. I will fight together with you. Sail, my friend, and live the truth you discover.

So the moment it makes the gong, you are opening up the Intersection. This marks the tipping point — the shift from control to complete surrender. This is the point, that is to arrive regularly.

In MAS, you can go all in on control and you should, it's very essential. MAS is the place for your mind to assert control and architect your environment to reach that tipping point of opening IMS.

But when you enter IMS, you hand the scepter over to Silence. It's a cessation of all control from MAS to a complete surrender into IMS to the Radiance of Silence.

This way you don't need to bring anything from MAS into the IMS like a pre-planned meditation technique, methods or expectations. Instead you simply arrive. You bring your mind just how it is to Silence.

In the beginning you might have racing thoughts, anxieties, or a long to do list for the day and that is 100% fine. My mind is arriving at IMS in a similar way most of the time and with Silence I have learned how to deal with it.

So what does it mean to simple arrive or surrender? You simply let your mind do what it feels to do. Basically what is most easy for the mind to do, let it do it, moment for moment, the entire session, no exception.

If it feels to think about the future, the past, about a recent event, just thinking about anything, let it think.

If it feels to apply a meditation technique: Gratitude, Mindfulness, Mantra, Loving Kindness, focusing on some object, just any technique, let it do the technique.

If it feels to feel sad, angry, happy, anxious, euphoric, just any emotion, let it feel that emotion.

If it doesn't feel anything anymore, then that's also fine.

So whatever you do during the IMS, The Radiance of Silence is shining very bright on it, much much more so than you are outside of IMS. Even if you spend the entire time thinking or feeling "lost", Silence is doing its work without you even realizing it.

If you allow your mind to be totally free, you are presenting Silence the true and authentic form of your MAS-conditioned mind. But if you bring in a method, technique or guided meditation from MAS into IMS in a way where you try to assert control with some degree of force, molding your mind to some goal or state, you are very disturbing that direct connection.

You are creating clouds that blocks the radiant intelligence of Silence.

The more control you try to assert, the cloudier it gets and in some cases it starts to rain and thunder, leaving you frustrated and disappointed. That happened to me, too many times already. It's like trying to say: I, the mind or something or someone in MAS knows the IMS. But no one knows. Only Silence knows.

Without clouds, Silence is able to directly shine its radiant intelligence to the activities of the MAS-conditioned mind, reacting to every impulse, thought and condition the mind is coming up with at any moment, creating a direct synergy, a synthesis, a process of recalibration that is of great significance and meaning for you and the current world we are living in.

If you feel an intuitive impulse during the IMS to apply a certain technique, that's fine, this is silence and you exploring the waters. But if that technique is preplanned coming from the Mindfulness Marketplace, then I hope you are going to make the experience very soon, to decide for yourself, which way you prefer.

So the process in the IMS is very intuitive and highly dynamic where each session is different from the other but all are highly valuable.

The Compass of Silence

So we've just talked about what the IMS is and the importance of moving from control to surrender.

Here, I want to talk about what the Radiance of Silence is conceptually doing when you sit in the IMS, and why it is so profound—again, in a simplified way, so you don’t get caught up in the details.

This process is a deeply complex system of chemical, biological, and mostly unknown mechanisms that goes far beyond human understanding.

Many traditions have created their own interpretations of what is happening within their context—some frame it as the unification of the mind, “no-self,” or “kundalini,” while others present extremely bizarre and otherworldly theories, all in great detail. I don't want to dismiss them, don't get me wrong.

But for the MAS-conditioned mind, and for those living in MAS, this has created more confusion than clarity. At least, they were not very helpful for me, because they are all describing the same thing—the experience of Silence—but with confusing and out-of-context words.

Real understanding comes from your direct experience with Silence, not from getting caught up in complicated ideas. That’s why I want to offer a simpler approach—a concept you can work with temporarily until your relationship with Silence is strong enough so that you don't need one anymore.

I'm also aware that I’ve said that your territory in the IMS should not be distorted, and I'm not going to do that here. This is unique to you. But this concept is about the underlying mechanism—a high-level map of this process. The preferred way for me to see this.

So what is this simpler approach?

I believe that we are all born with a perfect instrument of guidance.

I call it the Compass of Silence.

It's our innate capacity for intuition, the quiet inner knowing that has guided us since birth, steering us to the things that are good for us.

And in our turbulent context of MAS, this instrument is constantly disrupted, making the needle spin wildly and is pulling us in many different and unwanted directions.

And when you opening up the IMS the wildly spinning needle of your compass begins its gradual process of recalibration, realigning itself more and more over time with the one constant and clear signal of its guiding force: The Radiance of Silence, our True North.

And when you are going back to the full storm of MAS with your more recalibrated Compass of Silence you will find yourself more able to create direct counterbalances to the many situations you face in your daily life.

And this is where the profound value of the practice reveals itself. The counterbalances you create are not just 'good habits' you've learned. They are coming from Silence directly.

An action on the other hand that is coming from the Mindfulness Marketplace is still part of the noise, it’s someone else’s idea, someone else’s influence.

You can not be sure if the intention for you is pure and you can not be sure if its qualified enough. But with Silence you can. A counterbalance that arises from your own recalibrated Compass is an act of pure, unmediated intuition from Silence.

It is not from a guru, a book, or an app. It is from the 13.8-billion-year-old intelligence of the universe itself, speaking directly to your unique situation in the storms of MAS.

These counterbalances seem small and you might not even notice them at the beginning but they are compounding. Over weeks and months, these thousands of tiny, authentic choices begin to carve a new path through your life.

They change your habits, your reactions, your decisions. This is how you build your own individual container in the storms of MAS.

This does not happen from a grand decision, but from the slow, steady accumulation of listening to the quiet guidance of Silence, one counterbalance at a time.

How to Build your Vessel

It's a long term Practice

So in order to do all of this, you need a strong vessel that effectively and reliably brings you to the IMS on a regular basis. How you build your vessel is an important part of the exploration. Your Compass of Silence plays a huge role in this and also determines how you are going to use it.

The first and most important perspective is that this is a long-term practice. It is not a quick-fix pill for peace and wisdom that lasts for a week. MAS is very strong as I have outlined before, and requires therefore a strong response.

You cannot deal with a multigenerational and earth-altering force with just a few sessions here and there. You need a dedicated and long-term practice for that—months, years, decades, a lifetime.

For me, it has been more than a decade so far, and most probably, it will remain a lifelong practice that is going to change and takes on multiple forms.

But again its not like a one time event where you wait for "results" to come in like peace or calm. You are engaging in a process where you maintain a relationship with Silence. This is where you embark on a meaningful exploration. And your constantly recalibrated Compass of Silence is leading the way. So this starts already at day one when you open up the IMS, regardless of any so called "outcome".

The Physical Space and Your Posture

The next important point is to have a dedicated space.

This is crucial because it gives you a visual representation of the practice and makes it easier to access. But if you don’t have one yet, that’s also fine.

When you practice Silence on the couch, for example, your Compass of Silence might naturally lead you to create a dedicated space over time. This is part of the exploration process—you start simple, and through the guidance of your compass, you gradually build your vessel. In my live sessions, you can see how it has evolved for me, but I started very simply on a couch.

The next important thing is posture. Your body is a very important part of the vessel.

Here, it is important to still the body, to engage in as little movement as possible, or to combine it with walking meditation.

The form of the posture is secondary because the leading question here is:

How can the posture support your individual schedule of your practice in MAS in your current form of the vessel?

For example, if your practice is 10 minutes long, then a cross-legged posture might be ok. But if it’s one hour long, then its going to be very painful if you are not very flexible. And you don't want to experience pain all the time. That can make your practice unsustainable.

In my case, I have a walking desk where I stand and walk a lot plus I do strength training with squats and deadlifts. So for me to sustain my practice and expand the duration of my time in the IMS I switched from cross-legged to sitting on a stool as you can see in my live streams.

But this was a decision based on my Compass of Silence in my specific situation now. But throughout my exploration I had many forms of postures and each one had a purpose.

So here, it is important to not get lost in the dogma of form—like “I have to sit cross-legged” or “I have to sit like this or that”—but to embrace the dynamic nature we find ourselves in within MAS and adjust accordingly.

On Scheduling and Duration

The next important thing is to have a schedule at some point in your journey.

Also, it is important to slowly expand the duration of your IMS sessions and establish a consistent routine. Again, this is a dynamic process where you start small and expand gradually according to your Compass of Silence.

You might start very casually with just 10 minutes a day, and over time, you can start using tools like a calendar, time-blocking, or a tracker. Personally, I just use a calendar, and my current schedule is three sessions per week, each lasting one hour. This has become my sweet spot for now.

Outro

So I have covered a lot in this video. All the concepts and tools that I’ve offered here are my personal attempt to help you create a strong and lasting relationship with Silence while living in the storms of MAS.

All of this is intended to be transcended through your own exploration in your uncharted territory, not as a dogma to be taken literally word for word.

With this, I wish you a good journey, and in the next video, I plan to talk about one of my practical philosophies that has resulted from my personal practice with the Radiance of Silence.

Thanks for watching and see you next time.