“To be truly silent before God is one of the loveliest things in the world” Evelyn Underhill Lovely = synonyms: beautiful, charming, agreeable, captivating, delightful, alluring Who would have thought that a simple thing like silence is so very precious, so very beautiful. It is of course more than lovely. Some of the greatest writers on prayer and devotion and life itself say it is essential. To be truly silent is a skill that is possible for anyone to learn and practice. It is free. It is simple. It does not need gurus or teachers or degrees or athletic ability. All it takes is surrender, the ability to let go and ungrasp. As a monk once told me, “let all melt way before God’s love like snow melts away before the sun”. To be truly silent opens us to the warmth of Divine Love’s presence and in that place we discover our true home. To be untruly silent is to be in struggle. Untrue silence is a mechanical silence, a forced silence. It arises from a violent suppression of our inner turmoil. Untrue silence is denial and oppression of our humanity. Untrue silence tells us there is a right way to pray, a right way to sit, a right way to feel, a right way to think or not think. We twist and turn ourselves into a misshapen shape that cannot hear and thence cannot respond. It is not silence at all but yet more noise that creates more noise. However, if we can surrender and let go we encounter deep peace and the ground of our being. The noise, the thoughts and worries of our mind, the external sounds of life around us, will still be there. Silence is not necessarily the absence of noise. Silence is the place beyond the noise where everything is held in the depths of a loving gaze. Thoughts may come and thoughts may go. Sounds may come and sounds may go. Silence is the realm in which they all dance. When we let go and surrender, as in not identify with any of the thoughts and sounds, we find we are one with silence. Silence that is both empty and full. Silence is lovely. The practice of silence is simple. It is also challenging. Maggie Ross says it is a challenge for four reasons. What follows is my take on her four points. (Please check out her book, Silence: A Users Guide. Darton, Longman & Todd 2014. I am expanding on part of page 32) It is so simple we dismiss it…. We live in a culture that believes that if something is worthwhile it should take effort and striving. The more complex and difficult something is the more we think it worth our energy. We are enthralled by people of skill and ability who have put in hours and years of effort and striving. In comparison silence is effortless. The only effort needed is the willingness to let go. It requires perseverance…. Like any knowledge or understanding the loveliness of silence is only discovered in the practice. Perhaps more than any other epistemology silence is truly all in the practice. Like any commitment to any practice what will stall that commitment is the distraction of other things, other paths, other voices. When we sit to be still and begin our set time of silent prayer other demands (mostly from ourselves) will arise that want our attention. When we sit to be still and begin our set time of silent prayer the chatter in our heads will distract us from our focus. To abide in the land of silence we must persevere through boredom, fear, convoluted thoughts, doubts and outside distractions. Yet the only skill needed to traverse this noise scape is surrender, yet more letting go. Abba Moses word to the brother monk can be a word for us as well. The old man said, "Go and sit in your cell and your cell will teach you everything." Persevering through those set times will help us discover we dwell in the fecundity of silence every moment. We find it hard to accept that there is more to our mind than our brain…. Our whole being is our mind. The brain stores and processes bits and pieces of it but our mind is expansive and creative. Our mind is more than our self-consciousness, more than our thoughts, more than our identities, more than our memories and hopes for the future, more than the electrical firing of neurones and the flow of hormones. Beyond all of this is what Ross calls the deep mind. This term is her attempt to find a neutral word to describe the place that encompasses the ‘unconscious’, the ‘nous, and the ‘heart’. The deep-mind can be influenced by the self-conscious mind through intention and focus. Silence is the simple practice that opens up the flow between the two and thereby opens us to the depths of creativity, of continual beholding and of changed perception. The language we find to describe it is always inadequate. I think nothing truer was ever said. It has not escaped my notice that I am writing a blog and making a lot of noise about silence. It is also not escaped my notice that there are many more writers, prayers and contemplatives that could say it better than I. Yet everything we all say and in what ways is only ever an approximation of something that shifts and changes. That is both the beauty and the terror of silence. The only certainty is the expansiveness of silence itself and the creative Love that springs forth from its depths. __________________________________________________ Silence is not just a reality that is reached through meditative practice. It is a land that is always within and without us. It is the same way we are. Existing. Being. It is the nothing from which we come and the note with which we resonate. With love & peace Rebecca Let the soul banish all that disturbs; and let the body that envelops it be still, and all the fretting of the body, and all that surrounds it; let earth and sea and air be still; and heaven itself. And then feel the Spirit streaming, pouring, rushing into you from all sides, while you are quiet in this Peace. ~ Plotinus, AD 205
4 Comments
Foss
18/4/2016 09:11:05 pm
Just a thought - when I first embarked on doing silence, I was aware of tension in my head and eyes. It took me some time to perservere alongside these uncomfortable sensations becuase I wanted to know why they were there and would they ever go away. Well, they did. I think the process of quietening the body is part of entering into silence so its not really as simple as letting go - because that is not simple
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Rebecca
2/5/2016 02:38:37 pm
Thanks Foss - I agree.... quietening the body is definitely part of entering into silence. A key part and it is not simple or even easy at times. I think letting go is not easy either although the basic concept is simple. I think with practice it gets easier and we understand ourselves and what is happening in our bodies and minds. I have also come to understand that a major part of letting go is being able to 'sit back' and just take notice of what is going on and then refocus on the 'word', the 'task' or the present moment. What I am finding a blessing and a joy is the newness (new perspective, new sense of peace, new land) that is coming as I engage with the practice more and more. I feel such a babe in the woods - or is that barefoot in the forest?!
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Mark
22/4/2016 05:52:21 pm
I felt my shoulders dropping and my head clearing just reading. It was a bit like reading a mantra where you know the words before and the words after but the overall effect is to forget the words. Thanks Sis
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Rebecca
2/5/2016 02:43:00 pm
Thanks Bro....I am not sure if your comment is good or bad. :) .. did the words put you to sleep because they were boring or resonating? I am going with the later.... a clearing head sounds like a good outcome. Thanks for taking the time to have a look...
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