The Language of Silence 

You can now listen to John on Spotify and other audio platforms. Here is his most popular recording 'Common sense guide to meditation' (1m views) - ffm.to/commonsenseguidetomeditation.

John, please consider turning your books into Audiobooks but with you reading them, that would be absolutely amazing. :)

Again, dear friends, your messages just melt my heart. Who am I to receive them? In truth, it's not me, is it, but what my old School of Meditation used to call the 'Work'. May each of you respond as you can to your own 'Pull of the Way' to firstly help yourselves, then each other and, finally, here, now, come home to One complete.

Something about John's laugh gives me joy.

Oh I loved that cow looking at John, so puzzled! Just beautiful. The only smile in my day. Thank you.

What a blessed man

Love your videos I listen to your videos to calm me down when I'm angry or streesed your voice calms me down

Just bought your first book. I haven't bought a spiritual book since i read "I am That" by Nisargadatta over 15 years ago and which i have read and meditated on every single day. I recognised you immediately. Different background and religious language but the experience, the essence, the message is exactly the same. For those of us who have struggled to absorb and filter the true message through the confines of an unfamiliar religion, John is indeed sent from Heaven.

Literally the best voice I've ever heard. Calm, soothing, relaxing. He could fluff the most hardened heart.

Thank you John and you too Phil for another nice video. One can never have too much Silence or Peace that comes from It.

I absolutely love your voice. I'm not a religious man but I am spiritual. When I hear your voice it relaxes me and helps my anxiety. I appreciate what you do and I hope one day to be as knowing as you are. Keep doing what you are doing and know it helps others.

I'd like John's audiobook if there is one. His voice is way more soothing than the one in my head

How very gently and intelligently this interviewer conducts the interview. He definitely allows John's spirit to shine. thank you

I have just discovered these videos and this beautiful wise and adorable man..I have much to say about the profound impact it is having on my spiritual journey but there is not enough space here to write them all down..I can only say thank you dear John and know that your work and message is reaching us far and wide and we can hear you.. Your voice is truly heavenly, endearing and healing, just as Phil's voice is 😊 . You are a perfect team and every thing that comes out of your mouths is priceless and invaluable..Thank you so much. Much love to you both..❤🌾🍀🌻🌏

It began to decend into 20 below here in Vermont and the colder it gets the more silent it gets. Thanks for this verification of silence

Mr. Butler gives me hope for this world.

I can relate to some of his stories. Once, I was at the Colorado river after a long day of offroading. I was sitting in my folding chair after everyone else had gone to sleep and was just quietly sitting there, enjoying the stillness and the stars and the reflections on the water from the town across the lake. I noticed some motion out of the corner of my eye, and saw a young coyote walk right past me to get a drink from the lake. When he was done, he walked right past me again, this time locking eyes with me. After a moment, he continued back up the hill behind me.

Can we get a video of John reading his book(s)? I'd pay $$$ for that.

It's just a shame there aren't more John Butlers in the world. Lovely man

My man big John at peace cutting bread. I need some of that tranquility. Great work!

I like that last remark John made, 'when we look at our self in the mirror we can wink at our self' :) Its like our true consciousness is aware that the physical body we inhabit is not us :))

You have the voice of an angel, John. Truly appreciate what you've contributed to the world. =)

What I hear is almost the same teaching of John Main Osb. It is wonderful and authentic teaching .

Thank you so much for these videos. They're both calming and inspiring. There's so much to learn from someone who's experienced so much. Thank you again. Much love from Canada :)

So happy to have you both back with new conversations! 🖤

The Book of Silence: 250 blank pages.😂😂😂

I love his voice and that gentle pause he offers as he listens and thinks. Thank you, John

Love listening to John , I spend a lot of time in his home village of Bakewell and its a wonderful place , as already suggested it would be wonderful to have John actually reading his books , Many thanks again for your great wisdom x😁

Beautiful man and a great voice

Another great video Phil, but why do you get the HD camera and John gets the biscuit tin with the pinhole?

Unfoldment should be in the dictionary and I love him and his teachings. I wish could be like him

Thanks for the new video!

Awakening is possible only for those who seek it and want it, for those who are ready to struggle with themselves for a very long time and very persistently in order to attain it...

Thanks so much, Phil, for providing these utterly beautiful clips with John. They’re so precious and a joy to listen to.....🙏🏻❤️ (oh, and I totally agree with the suggestions of audiobooks!)

Your book arrived with me in Chesterfield yesterday John, I look forward very much to giving it a read. Thank you for the message you left as well.

These videos are amazing, I've always felt that we over talk and think so often and its really unfortunate. John your such a breath of fresh air for me. Your doing excellent job of dicribing the undriscable, thank you for sharing!!!

I always enjoy these videos. They inspired me to slow down and enjoy the more simple things in life.

I could listen to you talk about anything ❤️ brilliant. I’ve never seen anyone as well spoken as this gentleman

Has John done any guided meditations ( like Sadhguru or Michael Sealey)? He has such a wonderful voice and I'm sure his calmness and kindness would really help a lot of people who may struggle with finding that quiet on their own

I can be alone without feeling lonely; I like stillness and serenity; just seem to grappling with it recently;

Why can't I listen to this gentleman without falling sleepy? Not due to boredom but due to being nearly hypnotised!

Hey guys, so happy to see you back! I really liked this video, i can really relate to healing through silence. I have very severe anxiety, and i have a hard time being around people. When I'm alone, I am the most at peace in the quiet with my own inner dialogue. I wish i could find a way to apply this into daily life, going to work and being around others with that same reflection and inner peace.

Do you use different mics for each of you? They sound soooo different and honestly the jump from johns very cosy and muffled sound to the very sharp and clear sound of the interviewer is something that distracts a little. Beyond that I really appreciate these interviews. Very well done, Sirs!

I don't like thinking anymore I'm going right off it.

Very charismatic man thank you for the videox

2:59 thank me later

Only found you both a few weeks ago and working my way through your videos. I can't say how pleased I am to have found you, or more's the point, how you have found me at the most appropriate point in my life. You've changed my meditation practice for the better and I'm thankful for that. I will, by grace, learn from your teachings and relate them to my own experience to grow and become all I may be. Thank you

Yay!! A new video! I wish you the very best from Sweden❤️

I watched because his voice.

I will say that I sometimes think we over think meditation. I believe that it is available to everyone. No special books or teachers needed. It's simply being open to God and listening. God is there at any time. Be still and listen.

I have met an indian mystic whose words I try live by to the best of my ability. He said once that ANYONE can achieve spiritual enlightenment - not just from his particular spiritual practices or philosophy but from any culture, creed, age, or religion. The same teachings return in all cultures and just "spring" out of our subconscious at some point. As if somehow written into our DNA. It's like all the thoughts and experiences accumulate, and form pathways in the brain to give rise to these teachings. Like a message in a bottle from the dawn of time. John Butler proves him right. So many of his thoughts and advice resemble those of my guide. They're just worded differently. Thank you Mr Butler for sharing your wisdom.

I thank God I've found John. I listen every day. My spiritual gem 💎

Is Mr Butler still with us? I do hope so 🙏🏻

I resonate with everything John says, I’ve bee practicing Insight meditation ( Buddhist Theravada tradition) for very long..Its the most meaningful thing we could do with our lives, to devote ourselves fully to awakening. But, anyway, I think its grace that makes all happen, not our efforts, which are not only useless but, perhaps, counterproductive.. But to give ourselves completely to what it IS comes with a price..I’ve been kind of ‘evicted’ from the most beautiful, divine, jhanic states to what seems to be an eternal dark night.. Thank you, Phil and John, sending you metta from a grateful heart❤️

Unfoldment is in Dictionaries.

What a lovely old man John Butler is, he has a peacefulness about him. Listening to his videos has helped me get through a difficult time recently.

Jhon butler is such amazing one man I have learned a lot from him God bless him

I wasn’t aware of the website when I ordered my copy. I got it from book depository in the UK. They also have free post to many countries (including Australia, where I am) so for anyone who is worried about high postage, you can get Spiritual Unfoldment there. You can also set the site to show you the books in your own currency and bill you in it. I’ll be buying his other books too!

Love and appreciate your channel and wisdom. Your voice calms my anxiety. You are a blessing. Silence and being internally at peace is a work in progress for me. Thank you sir.

I have gained so much from your video series with John Butler. I cant thank you enough. Your efforts are beautiful.

If u really wanna see an old bearded dude kip in a field come to Bristol

Unfoldment is in the dictonary

Dear Mr Butler, Thank you for making these helpful videos. Please consider making a guided meditation video for us?

Please have John put his books on audible .com read by him. Thank you. Love your sharing with us all.

Thanks Mr Butler. You just dont know how much you have helped me. I wished i could talk one on one with you.

I always read as the real title here: " The Language Of Love"

I propose that these's more than one kind of silence: there's the dead mundane silence of the separate self, the occasional moment of muffled temporary stillness sought for in meditation before another thought or hypnagogic image swims up from the fetid dank recesses of the brain, and then there's the _other_ kind of silence, a Silence you cannot willfully invoke or hope to hear, but rather hope _It hears you._ It's a Silence I've only mostly glimmered, but once experienced full-on, unbidden, for a full five minutes......it's shockingly _loud,_ a "ringling-less" ringing, a "motionless-movement;" imagine an infinitely escalating "vibration" into a frequency-range beyond the Plank-length. It came on gradually at first. I was at work of all places, an OEM manufacturing plant. Alone in the empty paint-booth (intake fan was off but the space was long-evacuated of any fumes and I most certainly was _not_ high on anything) I was in-between jobs, not sure what to do next, nothing to paint, thinking maybe I'll pick up an orbital sander and venture-out onto the shop-floor and start prepping another unit for paint. Standing there alone I suddenly became aware of an _upwelling_ .....Stillness, in-between the clatter and roar of the factory outside of me with it's air drills and grinders and impact guns, an upwelling oddly blissful _SILENCE,_ growing more pronounced, even in between every verbalized and non-verbalized thought and sensation from within.... ....and it _grew...._ Before I knew it, I felt as though encapsulated in a standing-wave of Power-Silence-Emptiness-Bliss, whatever you want to call it, unlike anything I've ever experienced before or since. I should add that it was not "oceanic," I did not "melt-away" into It, nor was I reduced to a puddle of blubbering goo by It, but it was very _very_ apparent. The conscious space between every thought and sensation continued to expand like a universe. My mind furiously probed from within and without, trying to grapple with it. Was someone praying for me? Or was I having a stroke? Finally I gave up trying to label and comprehend It and just stood there in quiet stone-cold sober, hyper-aware reverie. _My God,_ I thought, _if everyone in the world felt this right now, everything would cease, all sports and wars and striving and the world would be at peace_ (and I thought I detected a "stand-offish" Intelligence, subtle but pervasive, an almost chuckling vibe, non-verbal, almost like: "Here you go kid, just a teaspoon. This is what you're after...") Five minutes later it was a memory.....I'd love to know empirically what my brain would've looked like in an fMRI while that was all happening. I don't know what to make of it but I'm still glad it happened (2001 or so), as I think I know what the mystics mean when they speak of Silence....but I have fairly given-up to ever experience It again, in this flesh... This was my experience of the living Void. It is _not_ empty, _not_ dead, but pregnant with infinite power and potential. But you can't have It. It can only have _you_

Silence is the absence of a carrier of sound, like space. That's it. Peace and inner silence is increased awareness to sensory stimulation and concentration towards calm.

I could listen to him not talking for long time. It's such a pleasnt silence.

I am a writer and translator and I find meditation invaluable for allowing meaning to shine clearly and become free from linguistic forms. Of course, it does great work in the rest of my life, too! Stillness is key to writing.

I'm not sure it's good people are falling asleep to John's voice! When he speaks, my brain lights up! Opposite!

❤

Here's a question I'd like to hear your thoughts about, John: How should we act when we see evil in the world? Sometimes in our quest to resist evil we might turn out being evil ourselves. War is an extreme example. But even in our daily lives, we can get "sucked" into darkness in our attempt to react to darkness.

What happened to the church fellas? Still under construction?

Hi John and Iain, firstly I love the videos I have been experimenting with meditation and trying to immerse myself in the permanent, infinite silence you speak of. it is in the pursuit of feeling deeply woven into the fabric of reality and feel pure love as you say. my question to John is: would you be able to explain, either here or in a video, what it is I ought to feel when I reach a state of true peace? is it just relaxation, transcendence or is it euphoria? I cannot say whether I have made any progress towards the peace John seems able to access because I don't know what I'm looking for. thanks for your time, Sam

I love enjoying the silence with a cup of camomile tea :')

it's very interesting seeing this man, who is clearly enlightened, attempt to express the experience of enlightenment in a new a different way. it's pure magic.

What is Love? .. baby don't hurt me, don't hurt me, no more 😁

It would be great if John could put out an audio version of his book ect... because his voice holds the vibration which guides one in so well...

I'm reminded of the humorous comment people joke about being naked under their clothes. It's like there's silence under all that sound.

Thanks again guys, hope you both enjoyed your different trips ✈

9:04 Is the Apex of relaxation

Thanks for sharing this wonderful interview.

I see that I have been severely selfish in my life. ...the more I focus on other's more than myself the better.....I need to stop letting my busy mind lead me...I need to follow my quiet mind....Follow God..not me...Follow Love...not the World...help others. Period..

Silence is golden. It's the sovereignty of God's dazzling presence. Silence is found in His imperial Kingdom. The altar inside each and every one of us. I love silence! Like you John, I enjoy shutting out the noise of the world, the loud mouth of the ego and meditate on the majestic power of silencing my mind. It is the reality of holy, wholly, wholesome, love, light, peace and freedom. As I persevere in silence within my own thoughts, it becomes as easy as breathing. It's a blessing on a grandeur scale that is majestically refreshing.🙏

I would love a format without interview process, perhaps with the questions seen only on the screen? I also much love his discussions when he is walking in nature, his favorite place in stillness... could this format be tried once or twice?

'Silence is deep as Eternity, speech is shallow as Time.'. Thomas Carlyle

Bob Ross brought me to ASMR, and ASMR brought me here. All in the last 5 months; I didn't have a name for the frisson before then. What a great discovery.

For some people, silence is already a great goal, almost a meditation. Just stop talking? Is a silent mind enough? Or does it take an education to think and speak consciously and correctly? :-)

7 kinds of silence? I’ve never heard a more noisy concept!

19:09 Baby don't hurt me, don't hurt me, no more.

Are you a vegetarian? Clearly you love animals. What do you think of factory farming and killing animals for food?

John should be a monk in a Christian monastery like the Carthusians. I wonder if he ever visited such a monastery, the silence there is profound.

3:23 start

What is love? Well, it's "Baby don't hurt me....no more" of course.

I'd love to have a conversation with you John, your voice is so soothing and has helped me with anxiety

DearJohn and Phil, I find myself with some time on my hands these days and am always silently wishing to share these videos with my dear mother or other people here in Germany or family members in Poland. Would you be interested in a translation of this video into German (and maybe later Polish) that could be added as subtitles? What do you think ?

If a person is experiencing a great deal of pain and fatigue making it difficult to meditate is there anything we can do?

Unfoldment did come up on Google search. ..hello from Melbourne Australia. .. gratitude for your "Unfoldment" of the innocence of Wisdom and Love ...you are a beautiful doorway to Truth xxx

I do need to read John's book perhaps....but I have learned so far from what I've watched (and there is much still to watch) that there is a profound simplicity which all of us can agree upon if we only just stop. Stillness and silence are boundless behind all 'this'. Whatever we believe that stillness actually is.....is it God?.....indeed which God is it?.....says more about us ourselves than the silence itself. In other words our own biases and beliefs based upon our acquired knowledge in life begin to speak OVER the silence and perhaps even get in the way. My question though is this. As blissful as it is, if we are destined to return to the infinite then shouldn't we be making the most of our opportunity to indulge in the 'music' of the physical world? If silence is God, then could not the physical world be the voice of God? As a composer myself, I know that I would rather my music was listened to rather than talked about. That is not my ego talking, that is just fact. There is a point and a purpose to the physical workd just as there is a point to a composer's piece of music. If that is NOT true then the physical world....the music of God, if you like, the expression of God.....needn't exist at all. It quite clearly NEEDS to be here. Otherwise it needn't be. So if that is the case, shouldn't we be fulfilling our lives where we are in the physical rather than yearning and reaching for the stillness. After all the physical is finite, stillness is infinite. Should we not be gathering rosebuds while we may, even if it is ultimately imperfect and inferior to the other?