Silence and silent meditation are amongst the most precious human activities. They are enjoyed in all cultures and religions, though at times they are treated as secondary to dogmas or rituals. In any case, it seems that human beings have always known that their penchant for words and activities must be balanced by a time of silence and letting go.
Forced silence, of course, is an anguished experience. Chosen silence, instead, may reveal deep truths. As anybody with even a small experience of meditation well knows, silencing the mind’s chattiness is not a luxury as much as a healthy necessity. Outer and inner silence are a requirement for a spiritual life.
As Matthew Fox writes: Mystery invites silence… Our distance from nature in today’s culture often interferes with this silence… We have, of course, different needs as we are different from each other, yet this simple sentence explains to me why I have always needed to live very close to nature: to have a better chance to experience the sacred mystery.
Matthew says that Stillness leads to an encounter with the Divine. Often the encounter is far beyond words. Says Rumi:
Secretly we spoke,
That wise one and me.
I said, Tell me the secrets of the world.
He said, Sh…Let silence
Tell you the secrets of the world.
Today, there is a wealth of scientific research on meditation and mindfulness. Matthew reports:
When brain researcher Andrew Newberg demonstrated that in deep states of meditation we go beyond thought and drop into an “experience of boundlessness,” [psychotherapist and mystic Estell] Frankel responded this way: “Evidently, our brains are hardwired to experience the mystical state of oneness we call ‘God’ and Kabbalists refer to as ayin or Ein Sof (literally, ‘Without End’). Ein Sof is the boundless and transcendent aspect of divinity that is beyond all form… When we emerge from such states of grace, our inner being opens more fully and new layers of soul are revealed to us.”
God is not always speaking. And the silence of God is not always a lack of engagement.
In the West, we have become so accustomed to religion as revelation of moral or ontological truths, religion as covenant and dialogue with God, religion as norms or critique of norms, that we have forgotten the other half of the deal: silence as purification, stillness, and regeneration.
I wonder what kind of society could issue from cultural habits such as stillness and mindfulness. You can object that the violence we breathe each and every day is way too high in its intensity to allow for such a suggestion to be meaningful. And yet, to me at least, it is precisely the absurdity and violence of political life that call me to go deep and suggest the deepest solutions.
It seems to me that unless we are grounded in silence, letting go, welcoming of the mystery, we have little chance to withstand the storms of evil which attempt to ravage our minds even before our bodies and the bodies of our neighbors.
Quotes from Matthew Fox, [title], pp. 137-138
Banner Image: Woman meditating. Photo by JD Mason on Unsplash
Queries for Contemplation
What is your experience of silence? What would entail bringing more “chosen silence” into society?
Related Readings by Matthew Fox
Naming the Unnameable: 89 Wonderful and Useful Names for God…Including the Unnameable God
Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality
One River, Many Wells: Wisdom Springing from Global Faiths
Meister Eckhart: A Mystic Warrior for Our Time
Meditations with Meister Eckhart: A Centering Book
Christian Mystics: 365 Readings & Meditations
Prayer: A Radical Response to Life
Passion for Creation: The Earth-Honoring Spirituality of Meister Eckhart
Sheer Joy: Conversations with Thomas Aquinas on Creation Spirituality
5 thoughts on “Silence”
Fr. Thomas Keating and a few other monks revived the contemplative tradition of daily silent prayer by the movement of Contemplative Outreach in the late 1960s. The Spirit helped it grow nationally and internationally (contemplativeoutreach.org), with daily Centering Prayer leading to deeper contemplative prayer. I joined in 2019 after a silent retreat at the Snowmass, Colorado Abbey monastery where Thomas Keating lived and wrote shortly before he passed. He wrote several spiritual books and my favorite ones when I introduce people to Centering Prayer are “Open Heart, Open Mind,” and “Intimacy with God: An Introduction to Centering Prayer.” Videos of Centering Prayer are also available on YouTube under the free subscription channel called Contemplative Outreach. There are weekly Contemplative Outreach/Centering Prayer support groups in most major cities. Daily Centering Prayer is an essential part of my personal/communal spiritual journey.
Thank you for today’s DM emphasizing the importance of daily silent prayer/meditation in most genuine spiritual traditions, especially with nature, on our spiritual journeys of transformation towards LOVING DIVERSE ONENESS with-in All Our Evolving Co-Creation~Cosmos in the Sacred Spirit/Flow of the ETERNAL PRESENT MOMENT….
A student once approached the Buddha and asked, “My lord, what is God?” The Buddha did not answer so, months later, the student asked once more, “My lord, what is God?” Again, no answer was given. So a third time, somewhat frustrated, the student demanded rather angrily, “My lord, what is God!? This time the Buddha opened his eyes, looked at the student and replied softly, “I have already answered you twice.”
“When all things were in the midst of silence, there came down to me from the royal throne on high a secret Word (Ws. 18:14)” Meister Eckhart, Sermon 21; Matthew Fox, Passion for Creation, p. 293
OM. . .
There are many types of meditative silence, and they each have benefits. They also have beliefs that are woven around them.
The Mystical Revelation that’s at the heart of the Judeo-Christian-Islamic-Hindu religions, their core Theology, is the One, THE Revelation that’s Mystical, radically Unitive and goes beyond Being. That Revelation is born of silence, of utter calm, of “letting go” and of having no expectations whatsoever. But it is also nurtured, before that silence, in complete Trust.
The Revelation is short but utterly complex. It has been the guiding light, and substance, of reams of texts in multiple traditions. Jesus hints at it in the Gospels and it’s blatantly proclaimed in the introductory verses of the Gospel of John.
As for how to bring THIS type of “chosen silence” to the people, I am probably NOT the one to ask, because I am a woman, and women are automatically doubted and disparaged in most Christianity.
But for those who want to know more about this Revelation, I left notes in the archives, and some notes on another Christian page. And there’s plenty of texts by men in the traditions. Not so many by women, but there are a few. Women were not “taught” this theology in most traditions, and those women who did become this type of mystic were often silenced, one way or another.
“God is not always speaking. And the silence of God is not always a lack of engagement.” Thank-you for that, that helps.