Week 6. Spiritual Practice
Silence
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So, pertaining to your spiritual practice...
“Did you ever sit quietly with your back straight, not moving, just only cherishing the beauty of silence?”
— Philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti
Or ask yourself...
“What is it that stands higher than words? Action. What is it that stands higher than action? Silence.”
— Saint Francis of Assisi
This means...
“Few things under heaven bring more benefit than the lessons learned from silence and the actions taken without striving.”
— Lao Tzu
Which also means...
“It is only in alert silence that truth can be.”
— Philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti
Therefore...
“Whenever we pause for a moment, and enter the silence, and listen very carefully, the glimmer of our deepest nature begins to shine forth, and we are introduced to the mysteries of the deep, the call of the within, the infinite radiance of a splendor that time and space forgot.”
— Theorist Ken Wilber
So, does anyone else have anything to add pertaining to the importance of silence in our spiritual practice? Anyone?
“Listen to the silence inside the illusion of the world, and you will remember the lesson you forgot."
— Novelist Jack Kerouac
“God has been everlastingly working in Silence, unobserved, unheard, except by those who experience His Infinite Silence. Those who have got the courage and wisdom to surrender themselves to a Perfect Master are the recipients of His Grace.”
— Spiritual Master Meher Baba
“Words engage our minds, but in the silence we hear the Presence of God.”
— Ram Dass
“I believe that God is in me as the sun is in the color and fragrance of a flower - the Light in my darkness, the Voice in my silence.”
— Author Helen Keller
“Let us be silent — so we may hear the whisper of the gods.”
— Essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Silence, beautiful voice.”
— Poet Alfred Lord Tennyson
“Silence is God's first language.”
— Mystic John of the Cross
“There is nothing so much like God in all the universe as silence.”
— Meister Eckhart
“Silence is essential. We need silence just as much as we need air, just as much as plants need light. If our minds are crowded with words and thoughts, there is no space for us.”
— Buddhist Monk Nhat Hanh
“There is a place born of silence. A place where the whispers of the heart arise. There is a place where voices sing your beauty. A place where every breath carves your image in my soul.”
— Poet Rumi
“Silence is an empty space, space is the home of the awakened mind.”
— Buddha
Okay, okay, I’m beginning to see a pattern here pertaining to the importance of silence. Anyone else have anything to add?
“In Silence God ceases to be an object and becomes an experience.”
— Priest Thomas Merton
“Truth is the offspring of silence and meditation.”
— Physicist Sir Isaac Newton
“Silence is a true friend who never betrays.”
― Confucius
“ We need silence to be able to touch souls.”
― Mother Teresa
“Silence is the communing of a conscious soul with itself.”
― Henry David Thoreau
“Silence is a profound melody, for those who can hear it above all the noise.”
— Socrates
“Then you must dive inward into silence. Stand on the rippling edges of the expansive universe within your own being and create from there.”
— Singer/Songwriter Jewel, Never Broken
“The Higher Self is whispering to you softly in the silence between your thoughts.”
— Deepak Chopra
“Move outside the tangle of fear-thinking. Live in silence.”
— Poet Rumi
Okay, okay, I think you’ve all made a point here, being silent as part of your spiritual practice is important.
Now let’s discuss silence in reference to praying.
“Anyone who has the habit of speaking before God's majesty as if he were speaking to a slave, careless about how he is speaking, and saying whatever comes into his head and whatever he's learned from saying prayers at other times, in my opinion is not praying. Please, God, may no Christian pray in this way.”
— Saint Teresa of Avila
“You cannot petition the lord with prayer!”
– Rock Star Jim Morrison, The Doors
“They say, "God told me", or "God replied to me". And yet most of the time they are talking to themselves.”
— Mystic John of the Cross
“Why stand we here trembling around, calling on God for help, and not ourselves, in whom God dwells?”
— Poet William Blake
“The first requirement for prayer is silence. People of prayer are people of silence.”
― Mother Teresa
“The fewer the words, the better the prayer.”
— Monk Martin Luther
“The most powerful prayer, one well-nigh omnipotent, and the worthiest work of all is the outcome of a quiet mind. The quieter it is the more powerful, the worthier, the deeper, the more telling and more perfect the prayer is. To the quiet mind all things are possible. What is a quiet mind? A quiet mind is one which nothing weighs on, nothing worries, which, free from ties and from all self-seeking, is wholly merged into the will of God and dead to its own.”
— Meister Eckhart
Okay, the best prayers are silent. I got it. Now, can anyone give me an example of the power of just being silent and still?
“To stop putting sensationalistic crap in my head. It cut down on the confusion. In order to do this, I could tell only the truth as well. I spent hours by the window considering if I could do that differently. I had been cruel with the truth. Perhaps I could just be quiet and allow. There is a lot of strength in allowing, and I was so weak. Allowing others their truth. Allowing things to unfold. Allowing things to reveal themselves so that everyone could see for themselves. Allowing spirit to arrive in whatever forms it comes to each individual to bring peace. Sometimes being quiet lets the truth come more loudly.”
— Actress Sharon Stone, The Beauty of Living Twice (after recovering from her stroke)
Which means...
“Everyman, when he gets quiet, when he becomes desperately honest with himself, is capable of uttering profound truths.”
— Novelist Henry Miller
“Only in quietness do we possess our own minds and discover the resources of the Inner Life.”
– Author Helen Keller
“The soul becomes prudent by sitting and being quiet."
— Aristotle
“True piety lies rather in the power to contemplate the universe with a quiet mind.”
— Poet Lucretius
“Withdraw to the untroubled quietude deep within the soul, and refresh yourself.”
― Philosopher Marcus Aurelius
“You can look only when the mind is completely quiet.”
— Philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti
Therefore...
“The beauty of being alone is often misunderstood… It’s not loneliness, which feels like a hollow ache, a searching for something just out of reach. Solitude is different—it’s an embrace… a sanctuary… a quiet communion with oneself… It’s where we meet the truest parts of who we are, without the noise or expectations of the world.”
— Model/Actress Pamela Anderson, Open Journal
This means...
“We can't underestimate the value of silence. We need to create ourselves, need to spend time alone. If you don't, you risk not knowing yourself and not realizing your dreams.”
— Singer/Songwriter Jewel
For example...
“These years in silence and reflection made me stronger and reminded me that acceptance has to come from within and that this kind of truth gives me the power to conquer emotions I didn't even know existed.”
— Singer Songwriter Ricky Martin
And...
“I like the idea of going to one of those retreats where you don't speak - like, silence for five days.”
— Singer Songwriter Madonna
And...
“A call to shut up and listen is not what I want to hear. “Be still” is hardly an epiphany. But “Be still” is all I hear from the silence.”
— Bono, “Surrender” (Rock Star)
Because ultimately...
“And the sign said, "The words of the prophets
Are written on the subway walls
And tenement halls
And whispered in the sounds of silence."
— Simon & Garfunkel, “Sounds of Silence (song lyrics)
So, to recap...
“Silence and solitude, the soul's best friends."
— Poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
“Our greatest experiences are our quietest moments.”
— Friedrich Nietzsche
“Real action is in silent moments.”
— Essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Silence is a source of great strength.”
— Lao Tzu
And scientifically speaking...
“My stroke of insight would be: peace is only a thought away, and all we have to do to access it is silence the voice of our dominating left mind.”
— Neuroscientist Jill Bolte Taylor
So, in summary, pertaining to the spiritual importance of silence...
“There is a huge silence inside each of us that beckons us into itself, and the recovery of our own silence can begin to teach us the language of heaven.”
— Meister Eckhart
“Finding Nirvana is like locating silence.”
— Novelist Jack Kerouac
Therefore, all of us should be saying to ourselves...
“Thank you, thank you silence."
— Singer/Songwriter Alanis Morissette, “Thank You” (song lyrics)
To combat the ego and its compulsive, incessant thinking, we must all collectively turn to silence and just be.
Let’s stop the illusion of praying for something, as that is merely wanting and desiring in the ego’s world of form. Doing so leads us to participating in the ego’s mind game. It’s time to start praying in silence. Because if you pray for something, you are perceived separate from that something. Your prayers come from the perception of lack, which exists exclusively in ego’s compulsive thinking.
What we all must remember is this… you are what you think which means if you pray from the perspective of lack, as your separated self, you are lacking, and the universe will manifest more of the same.
Let’s begin praying in silence where our true existence is heard through connection of consciousness, a relationship with spirit, and not via the illusion of separation and limitation. A requesting prayer can play out as if you were the customer and God is a waiter waiting to take your order.
The goal of this practice is to consciously change our thinking. Meditation, stillness, and silence are a crucial part of dealing with that voice in our heads, that wants to think incessantly and compulsively.
The heart needs to be heard to create Heaven on Earth. Silence is the gateway to Heaven.
Do you feel what I am saying here? The answer to that question will only be felt in silence.
So, let’s all of us take a breath here and sit in silence for a moment and just feel this practice and not analyze it as many often want to do.