The Nine S': Silence

Silence

To ponder silence, consider first, noise. What do we hear of externals? Then peel back the layers, one by one. Begin event mentally in a place of activity and people. Can noise be seen? It seems so. Busy activity seems noisy even if no one is speaking. Stop looking at the activity, the movement. 

Then peal back the layer of conversation, that which is close, discernible content and even if it is distant voices, indiscernible conversation. Peel the noise of mechanical means sounding around: one's car, computer keyboard clicks, or the far off hum of traffic. Then reveal other layers...birds, wind in trees, movement of people walking, animals, sounds of electronics in the vicinity, or the hum of the earth.

Approach the noise within one's thoughts, then body. The words going through one's mind, do they make noise? Try to peel away the words, or at least acknowledge that they have a voice—either one's own or another, such as a recalled conversation. Are there images in the mind, and do they move and make noise, such as thoughts that can be heard in similar way that outer activity becomes noisy, as distractions? 

Is there sound when one eats and drinks? Peel back those layers and consider the noise of breathing, or the noise of the heart and blood, the noise of some ache or pain in the body.   Noise not only generates from physical motion but also from thoughts, images, and the senses within.

All this, and more, is noise. And silence is that which is not. We can not achieve total silence, but there is reason to strive for increasingly approaching silence. Pray for and practice the formation of silence not only of our movements and conversations, but also in our inner senses that interlock with other of the Nine S', such as stillness, slowness, stability. 

The inner connects and supports the body, mind, heart and soul to come to yet more silence. The outer exists more individually, independently, such as a car radio or a computer fan, television, or talk in restaurants.

To achieve silencing the outer, one must begin turning off and removing, peeling back the layers of noise through active, exterior means. This is the simplest way to achieve external silence. Jesus went to a deserted place to pray, or cast out a distance from shore in the boat where there was more silence. Often He waited quietly, before speaking. What may be the simplest in our initial choices to have silence may be the ones we do not want to make. The noise in our heads say, “What will people think if we do not chat, or if we turn off the TV, or have not heard the latest hit song on the charts?”

The comprehension of the value of silence must rise beyond the need to be like others, or the need for inclusive approval. Required is a literal as well as spiritual adherence to Scriptures in regard to seeking and finding God in prayer, in practicing the virtues, in being mindful of God's will for us in the present moment. 

Once a person is able to physically and mentally remove from situations of outer noise, there may develop an understanding of silence that has not been experienced since earliest memories of childhood, or of silence one may experience in sleep, for noise involves conscious awareness. 

We come to an opposing awareness of the very smallest particles of whatever noise may remain, whether of interior images, words, or subtle bodily motions. However, sleep may be noisy if filled with dreams, for the dreams contain images, words, thoughts that the conscious mind or memory begins to hear. From infancy, we know the existence of external sounds and that our bodies emitted sounds. Infants (and of those near death) are highly sensitive to external sounds. 

The value of silence must be instilled in us as we seek union with Christ. We must prepare the way for such silence, for it is in silence that we best hear His voice and not our own, not our thoughts or images. That is why the learned mystic saints advise against getting caught up even with the most amazing visions, for it is noise, distraction, and not Christ Himself. Just reminders of Christ, or sometimes demonic impersonations. 

So it is the ultimate silence of nothingness that we hear described from those who have been blessed with union with Christ. The silence of union lasts only for seconds or minutes, the saints explain, and it is pure silence of union for it contains nothing of what they heard or saw.  This pure silence is inexplicable, the encounter with God in utter silence of the interior, even if there were to be noise all about the temporal body.

So we come to understand that in order to experience increasing silence, we must peel off the layers of noise—exterior, interior—in whatever  ways we “hear” and recognize, linked with the knowledge of which action necessary to remove any particular distraction. 

The small child can be taught consciously of silence, by someone placing a finger over the lips and making a “Shhh” sound, or no sound at all—by example. The worker can choose silence during the break, outside or privately, earplugs tuning out exterior sounds, or eyes closed to silence the visual sounds heard--watching people walking, talking--without audibly hearing them. Other external senses can invoke noise within the mind through association with sounds of conversation, images, memories, touch and smell.

Even though we may not achieve total exterior silence due to the reality that we cannot always remove ourselves from all noise, we can control much of the noise through our own choosing and enacting, peeling back layers of sound. Even though we may not be able to achieve complete interior silence due to the reality that our minds have memory and imagination which store visual images, words and noise association, we can learn ways to pull blinds on the distractions within.

Silence is a grace and also learned, and grows with desire for Christ, for the peace He promises to bequeath. Desire for union with Christ grows with growing awareness of the inner senses of which silence seems to be of foremost concern. It is through learning to appreciate and practice silence that the soul is readied for being one with Christ, one with the Father, one with the Holy Spirit, even if but for moments on earth. 

Learning silence assists with learning love. The greatest attribute of love is not that of the sounds of love, but rather of love's silence. Since God is love, we must pray and practice peeling back our exterior and interior noise, in order to discover, experience, in loving silence, God.