“Silence is the sleep that nourishes wisdom” – Francis Bacon
Many people are uncomfortable with silence. I do not recall when I first became aware of my comfort with the absence of “noise”. Jesus loved to walk along the Sea of Galilee. When I have the opportunity, I like to walk whenever possible in silence. It astounds me how many people run or walk on a beach while listening to music or something else. What sound can be as astounding as the waves on the shore? The primary reason many people are uncomfortable with silence is that experiencing it can force us to look inside ourselves, perhaps into areas that that we would rather keep in “wraps”. The soul always knows what to do to heal itself. The silence is to challenge the mind. Quieten your mind and your soul will speak. Silence has certain energy to it like no other energy source. It has the power to get people to think and to act. Silence nourishes wisdom when we listen to its very music. It is medication for a cluttered mind.
We live in a constant tension between the uncertainty of life and the certainty of death. What does lent mean amidst the noise and clutter around us? It comes providentially every year to reawaken us, to shake us from our lethargy. Ash Wednesday which is 2 days away marks the beginning of the Lenten season and contains the most important moments of life. It reminds us of creation, the earth and the fragility and joy of life. Ashes are the reminder of the direction of our existence: a passage from dust to life. We are dust but if we allow ourselves to be shaped by the universe we become something wondrous. Look within and be still. The quieter you become the more you can hear. Silence the noise and distractions that surround you, and let the universe draw near you, as we grow closer to it. The wiser you get the less you speak. Silence is the companion of a creative mind. The quiet words of the wise are more to be heeded than the shouts of fools.
Not always do we need to give answers or explanation to certain questions. At times it is silence which is the best answer. Learning to become quiet helps refrain from expending unnecessary energy participating in the wheel of thoughts in our head. Silence is to the mind and body, what light is to the plants. In the absence of light, no plant can survive. Similarly a mind crowded with thoughts is dead as it has no place to learn new things.
Silence is deemed wise and intelligent. Sometimes silence is golden – Isiah 53:7. Refraining from speaking in certain situations means we are practicing self-control. It is the waiting in quiet that actually feeds our souls. Silence grounds us to our reality and makes the external matter less. It allows us to listen to the whispers of the universe amidst the chaos of daily life. Silence improves concentration and focus. A short time of silence every morning can be a time for collecting our thoughts, training our minds, and deciding how we want to enter into the day. Silence gives us a chance to listen to our inner voices. It helps us to turn our thoughts and focus inwards and live the present moment now not the past nor the future. The earth is not only a place in which we work. It is also part of us. Being made of
dust, we belong to the earth. The Universe speaks in silence but we must know how to listen. Being silent is more about entering a sacred place within yourself.
St John of the Cross often said “Gods first language is silence.” The creator wants to be present with you and setting aside time for silence can create a space where you start to notice peace throughout your day, no matter how busy or noisy it maybe. When you are silent, an inner sanctuary opens up and your mind calms down and is freed from the endless cycle of thinking. Even when we’re sitting still, with no external stimuli, an endless internal dialogue may be going on in our head. We are constantly consuming our thoughts. Cows, goats and buffalo chew their food, swallow it, and rechew it multiple times. We may not be cows or goats, but we ruminate just the same on our thoughts – unfortunately, primarily negative thoughts. We eat them, and then we bring them up to chew again and again, like a cow chewing its cud. What are you ruminating on? Is it some past suffering? There’s a radio playing in our head, Radio Station NST: Non Stop thinking. Our mind is filled with noise, and that’s why we can’t hear the call of life or the sound of our heartbeats. We have yet to learn the power of quiet in a world full of noise. Freedom comes as our life in thoughts diminishes and our experience of the present moment dominates. The source of all sorrow is the illusion of ourselves. We are anything but dust. We are all from dust and to dust we all return. You and I are embers from the same fire. We are dust from the same stars. It is only on the realm of nothingness that we can met each other.
Silence is not empty, it’s full of answers. It is the home of the awakened mind. The beauty of silence is that it creates space for us to become one with the present. The ego seeks to divide and separate us. The spirit seeks to unify and heal every living creature on this earth. When we re-connect with Mother Nature we re-connect to everything else. It is our own disconnect that is causing us all our pain and suffering. Paradise and heaven are not places. It is a state of consciousness. Sometimes we need to be still and reflect.
Moments of silence can benefit everyone as a time to embrace the present, forget about the past, and relax about the future. When individuals come together and spend time in silence, they are gifting themselves the opportunity to enhance their overall well-being. When you learn how to live in the present moment, you’re giving yourself the opportunity to enhance your overall well-being and carry the gift of presence with you through life. When we learn to still the mind, we are able to create what we want in life instead of reacting impulsively. Speak only when you feel your words are better than your silence. You are nobody. You are insignificant in this universe. Silence is the best reply to a fool. It takes more courage to remain silent than to answer. To the world, silence is weakness. This is how the Roman authorities perceived the silence of Jesus during his trial before Pilate.
2023 years later, we still remember and meditate on that silence. No one remembers Pilate.
(The writer is a social scientist and a senior practicing criminal lawyer).
