Musing on silence

[puzzledtoo]

Ever utter the words “I can’t hear myself think” or any variation thereof? Sometimes I’ll hear someone say this and think to myself " You don’t really want to hear yourself". I speak from personal experience of course-whenever it gets a bit quiet I get agitated and look for any kind of distraction to ease the discomfort. I turn on the television or get something to eat or use any other number of ways to distract the mind from the “incessant stream of thinking”. Sad isn’t it? We know that to find peace we need to be comfortable with stillness and silence but we’re always running away from what we need most.
Blaise Pascal tells us that we need to “sit quietly in our rooms each day” and since we don’t “all the troubles of life come upon us”.
Silence and stillness just may be that first step to what we’re seeking.

 

[Lily_Bernans]

I grew up in a Carmelite cloister. I lived there from the age of five to eighteen. I did go to school in the village (this was in France), but when in the cloister, I had to observe the rules of the cloister. We only spoke for one hour each evening. The rest of the time, we had to maintain silence. All that conditions one to learn to be silent with God.

I can now be silent for weeks on end, if need be. Sometimes I go to retreats during which silence is observed. I see the great value in community, and I see the great value in silence. And, I know how difficult silence can be.

 

[GEddie]

It will be silent enough in death; I feel no need to anticipate it.

 

[Dorothy]

It will be silent enough in death; I feel no need to anticipate it.

Silent in death?

I remember this verse: “Eye has not seen, nor ears heard, the joys that God has prepared for those who love Him.”

And for us now, silence is God’s first language.

 

[GEddie]

Silent in death?

Of course, how could it not be?

 

[BarbTh]

Silent in death?

1 - I remember this verse: “Eye has not seen, nor ears heard, the joys that God has prepared for those who love Him.”

2 - And for us now, silence is God’s first language.

1 - We have no idea at all what will await us after death except that “Eye has not seen etc…” Will there be complete silence or heaps of talking…we just do not know.
Therefore, the following is not quite correct:

Originally Posted by GEddie
It will be silent enough in death; I feel no need to anticipate it.

Certainly, the human body once dead on earth will no longer speak. However, what happens when the soul passes into eternity at the death of the body, we do not know.

2 - “And for us now, silence is God’s first language”

 

[Dorothy]

Of course, how could it not be?

When we enter into the Presence of the Lord, (may we have the grace of final perseverance) it will not be a “dead” silence. It will be an ecstacy of joy forever.

The deep things of God makes some words sound ambiguous.

 

[revelations]

In this world today it is difficult to find silence - from kids to tv to the radio to the internet, tweets, feeds, shares, likes, notifications we are always on. When is there time to hear God? What did Jesus say about prayer:

But when you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you, and pray to your Father in private. Then your Father, who sees everything, will reward you.

• Matthew 6:6

It is true that at the beginning and even in the first few years it is hard to not have a thought, or train of thoughts running. But with persistent practice and abandoning yourself to the instruction of the Spirit you will reach a time when you can silently contemplate God and hear the gentle calling of His voice.

Keeping silence for even 10 minutes per week is a profitable, and spiritually enriching exercise.

 

[GEddie]

All I know is, when my breathing is choked off, and my ears are dead, and my head is dead, it will be more silent than I would ever need or want. I don’t care to anticipate it.

Death is silent. Life is full of breathing, wind, rain, footfalls, animal sounds, human speech and music, and mechanical sound. I prefer life.

ICXC NIKA

 

[Sunbreak]

I like silence. There’s way too much noise in today’s world. I remember living on an island in Washington state for a few years and being overwhelmed by all the noise when I went off island to Seattle or Bellingham.

 

[Dorothy]

All I know is, when my breathing is choked off, and my ears are dead, and my head is dead, it will be more silent than I would ever need or want. I don’t care to anticipate it.

Death is silent. Life is full of breathing, wind, rain, footfalls, animal sounds, human speech and music, and mechanical sound. I prefer life.

ICXC NIKA

All you mentioned about the sounds of what life has too offer in your last sentence above is multiplied many times in the next world in its true Voice. The wonders we experience in this world are only shadows of what is to come in the next.

 

[puzzledtoo]

The breath, human and animal sounds, rain, wind are all more real in silence. Being silent isn’t like the silence of death it is to be more alive right now. Even the colors of flowers, the sky, etc… are more real and vibrant in silence in my experience. Yes even a few minutes each day is all that is needed then as time goes by, more if possible. I’m usually able to set aside maybe 10 or so minutes each day and this is not 10 minutes at once. Maybe 2-3 here and there but what a difference in my life it has made. As Mother Teresa said “whole new outlook”.