Saturday, February 28

Enter the Silence--Reflection from Marc Mullinax
 

Be Still and Know. -Psalm 26:10

Silence is so hard for us… We are so carefully-schooled that certain dings, chimes, chirps, radio, or TV are “needed” as our never-quietened companions… But these “companions” are not original friends, but attention-thieves. And our reservoirs of attention, borne from wise silence, is our super-power. Silence is absolute non-cooperation with the seemingly ubiquitous soundscapes of commotion and noise we have been so carefully taught … Non-cooperation with advertising, socialization, capitalism, and what the empire would educate (and scare) us with. Silence is the gateway to the soul’s real education. Silence quietens, so we can listen to the heart, the soul, to the other-than-human world.

What remains after silencing these 10,000 disturbances? When we cultivate silence, we begin hearing things that have always been there, but have been covered up by the ever-present, never-stopping Ten Thousand Noises. Original peace. Original harmony ... still there after the emptying out of unnecessary noise. Silence is not mere absence of sound; it is the bearing and attitude of listening to the cosmos. Silence, then, is our curious original nature, our standing on tip-toe, to listen to what the Universe is saying (for a change). Because Silence is so countercultural, and yet so natural, maintaining one’s silence in a culture of noise is a revolutionary act.

Pascal said that our problem is distraction and the solution is not more distraction, but quietened attention. Such attention is the soul’s vocation. We’re taught how to talk, but not how to listen. The skilled response to noise is not more noise, but more silence. Just one person – silent, listening – affects the “acoustic-weather” in the room. At Decibel-Level Zero, the illusions of being a self, or in control, on top of things, or even to do many of our usual acts/things, do not last long. At Decibel-Level Zero, we know ourselves as interconnected and not alone.

Every major faith tradition agrees: The one established in silence lives in constant offering, in prayer without asking, in thankfulness, in continual love. Silence is how we learn whatever wisdom we ever know. The dialects of Silence are always there, for it is part of the blueprint of all Creation, but maybe we have forgotten it, forgotten how to listen. It is so easy to pay attention to interfering noises. Today, at least, let’s see where silence leads us. When life is heavy and hard to take, go off by yourself. Enter the silence. -Lamentations 3:28

Practice: Meditate, preferably with a cat or dog nearby, on the Psalms or the Lamentations verses. Or revisit a meditation this week. Make it a point to be in a soundscape of silence around you.