Silence is Golden

“In Greece he spent a year in silence just to better understand the sound of a whisper.” – Geoffrey Caucher, A Knights Tale.

A few years ago, the BBC made a 6 hour documentary series called The Big Silence (http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/big-silence/). The documentary showed 5 people who agreed to remain in complete silence for 8 days in a monastery. Not all of the participants were Christian or spiritual in any way. What was so interesting though, was that over those 8 days all of them had some sort of spiritual experience, which- even if they never called it “God”- somehow transformed their lives. Jon Treanor (http://www.jontreanor.com/), who had his life completely transformed by the experience, had this to say:

1. “We drown ourselves out through noise and I think that’s a real shame, we forget who we are.”
2. “The first day of silence is terrifying and I found it really emotional and difficult to get into, until my mentor said; ‘don’t feel like you are falling back into it, step into it.’”
3. “There is only one place to go and that’s into yourself and that’s a scary journey.”
4. “I found me and I love me now.”

What is it about silence and meditation that is so powerful? What is it about silence and meditation that we find so uncomfortable, so intimidating, so scary? In silence we are confronted by ourselves and by God. This idea is not unique to Christianity, almost all spiritual belief systems promote being silent as a way of becoming alive in a fuller sense, as we become more aware of ourselves and of our surroundings. We become aware of both the variety and difference in reality, and the fact that all this difference and variety seems to be united and ordered. Some people call that rationality and unity Nature (or Mother Nature), Qi, Chi and Chukwu, Law, the Big Other, God etc.

In silence we are confronted with ourselves. We have no-one else to talk to, no noise, no distractions, no opportunity to escape meeting with our own thoughts and emotions and spirit. And it’s usually super awkward. As we confront ourselves our own thoughts and feelings become louder and more real, as if we are just learning to recognize our own voice and to actually listen to ourselves. Somehow the person talking can seem like a stranger. We go in for the hug, expecting our thoughts and feelings to be welcoming and friendly, and they greet us with a handshake.  And that’s always awkward.  This may seem weird, even contradictory. Can I, by being alone, make me realize I’m not who I perceive I am? In Proverbs it is written that “The purposes of a man’s heart are deep waters, but the man of understanding draws them out.” (Proverbs 20:5).

In silence we meet with God. We have no-one else to talk to except ourselves (which may have gotten awkward), no opportunity to escape the reality of our own existence, our inherent goodness, the sense that that goodness is not what it should/could be, and our desire for purpose. This naturally draws us to God. I’m not saying this is the only way to meet with God, of course, but it is a way, so why wouldn’t we do it? We probably all know the story of Elijah, how he heard God in the silent whisper, not in the earthquake, fire or storm (1 Kings 19). St. John of the Cross, a Spanish mystical priest in the 16th century, drew a map of the soul’s journey called The Ascent of Mt. Carmel [Mt. Carmel is where Elijah called down fire from Heaven and defeated the prophets of Baal (1 Kings 18)].  The path up the mountain was marked with the words “nada nada nada nada”.  “Nada” here has the same meaning we assign to it today- nothing. By embracing nada – nothing – the soul released its attachments to all things so that, unencumbered, it could climb to its divine source and sustainer of all things. Paul writes “For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man’s spirit within him?” (1 Corinthians 2:11). In silence are you more aware of your spirit? Are you more aware of the Holy Spirit?

You might raise some objections to this. You could think that there is no worship or praise in silence, or that getting rid of all our attachments is a form of self-centeredness, and self-centered people are just so darn irritating. But self-centeredness is not actually focussed on the self, but on the external desires of the self. The self-centered man asks “What am I and what do I want?” and the self-reflective man asks “Who am I and who do I want to be?”. As to worship, the Quakers (the Quakers are a Christian denomination) worship by sitting quietly in a room- no music, no noise, meditating on Scripture and life. Occasionally one of them stands up and shares something that God has said to them, and then sits down, and the silence continues. This is an authentic type of worship, like the quiet and steady love of an elderly couple, as sincere, perhaps more so, than our passionate, noisy and energetic worship. (I am not saying our way of worshipping is bad, just that if you are reliant only on the passion the music stirs up in you then your worship is more like the hare than the tortoise- likely to fall asleep).

This sort of silence needs to be paired with meditation. Before you think meditation is some mystic Eastern thing meant for Buddhists and the Beatles, note that Christianity is also an Eastern religion, and that Jesus often left the big crowds and his disciples to spend long periods of time in silence and meditation (Matthew 14:22-23). When you are being silent it doesn’t help to have no audible noise only to replace it with mind-noise. Here are some tips to help you meditate:

1. Get comfy. It doesn’t help to get stiff and uncomfortable. A straight back will help you to not get tired and sleepy.
2. Practice breathing. Apparently (this is Facebook science, which shouldn’t be trusted, but let’s roll with it for now) breathing in for 4 seconds, holding your breath for 7 seconds, and breathing out for 8 seconds, is the best breathing pattern for relaxing oneself. Now, we don’t want to fall asleep, but to have a silent mind we need to relax. So spend some time breathing the 4-7-8 pattern, and enjoy it. Let the fresh air fill your lungs.
3. Try not to let your mind wander around and your thoughts to race ahead, filling your mind with “what-am-I-doing-after-this” and “I-have-so-much-work-to-do-I-can’t-spend-half-an-hour-doing-nothing” and “so-and-so-really-needs-this-I-hope-they-benefit-from-it” types of mind-noise. If your mind begins to wander bring it back until it shuts up and sits down. Listen to your breathing as a way of focussing your thoughts, or repeat a short phrase from a verse over and over until everything else has been quietened.
4. Become aware of yourself. If you are sitting, focus on that. Twiddle your toes and focus on that. Be alive in the twiddling of the toes, notice how it feels- and how weird toes are.
5. Be present in the moment you are in, realizing that in this moment you have access to the fullness of the Deity (Colossians 2:9-10), and that by taking time to experience and enjoy yourself and your current environment, you are accessing that fullness. In that present-mindedness you are settled, and may find contentment just for being alive. There is a stability about a present-minded person, they are not tossed back and forth by the waves of information that constantly wash over us and the busyness of life (Ephesians 4:13-14).Those who are fixated on the what’s-next have their mind in the future, not in the present moment, which is what they inhabit, which is theirs, which has been given to them. They are merely shadows of their future selves.
6. If your meditation leads to prayer, return to meditation after your prayer (don’t use prayer as an excuse to not be silent). Andrew Murray said “When you are praying, let there be intervals of silence…in which you yield yourself to God.”
   

   Now be shut up, be still, and know God (Psalm 46:10).

1. God.”God.”

Now be shut up, be still, and know God (Psalm 46:10).