Sound of silence
To those who would seek a spiritualpath there is one requirement that for many is daunting and turns
them away .That requirement is silence .The capacity to sit quietly to avoid the distraction from television or laptop or cellphone ismbecoming a rare ability Perhaps we are bore easily .Or perhaps we are afraid.
Some years ago I went on a retreat .I did requested for a roomalone so that I could immerse myself in silence. I arrived at my room to notice the absence of TV and radio.The first thing I wanted to do was –drink! I was assaulted with a desire to drink. Alcohol had been long been my escape from myself ansd so when we faced with the reality of encountering myself.,I wanted to run .I was afraid.
When we are silent we don’t always become peaceful .Sometimes old hurts well up. Sometimes we are faced with grief we have been avoiding .Or perhaps we become aware of those dark corners of ourselves that we don’t like to admit. Yet such confrontations are an integral facet of a
spiritual journey.
They tend not to show themselves untilwe are quiet ,Try silence for a moment after you have youe web surfing,Turn off the computer the TV your cell phone and anything else that may intrude .Then simply sit andlisten.What do you hear?
The sounds of silence are not always terrifying .Perhaps we wiltap a new level of creativity .Perhaps we will deepen an understanding .Or perhaps we will simply here a song of a bird we did not noticed before.
The one quality of the blessed life is silence .The older I get the more I crave it. People in my family start losing their hearing around the age of seventy.What a wonderful coincidence that we start losing our hearing th sametime we start appreciating silence.. By the time you are seventy you have heared the best sounds this world has to offer your grandchildren Hank Williams and katsdids in August.
By silence I dontmean an atmosphere void of any sound .I mean an atmosphere free of radios, voices,engines ,sirens and Television.Natural noises are fine.. If I am sitting on our porch swing and all I can hear are katydids.cricket and frogs, Iconsider that silence. Wondrous silence..But a teenage boy next door revs his car engine its no longer silent.Its the silence of katydids,crickets and frogs that I crave.
Here is bit of wisdom from William Penn : True silence is rest of mind. It is to the spirit what sleepis to the body—nourishment and refreshment.
The essence of the value of silence is to free ourselves from influences other than those from God. Silence then can open ourselves to God.
In the spiritual silence in which we haveso opened ourselves we can see our own
condition much more clearly .This can be a very humbling experience for we see our own sinfulness how we fall short. Seeing our condition we become acutely aware of our need for God to redeem us.
In the stillness we can also become much more aware of the depth of God love for us. We do not empty our minds because we value emptiness but rather so they can be filled with the things of the spirit.
Most of the people claim tolike silence though I doubt it. If people want silence they did think twice about filling their with npisemakers. Noise inhibits inward peace by distracting us from spiritual self-examination .It keeps us from discerning our souls condition.
Silence is the spiritual Knife which lays open our souls.If we are never silent,we never have to examine the truth about ourselves.
This is why monks and sages are quiet: so they can discover that which can be found only in silence.
Most of us need more silence than we get .Othersof us have too much .The people who need silence don’t get it. The ones who have silence often don’t need it. This is a great problem in life , and if I only had enough silence ,I could maybe figure out how to fix it.