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Silence | |||
| by David Wood | ||||
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By now it's October, school holidays
are long over and by now everything is frenetic again. We are back at trying
to do 101 things all at once. Either because we choose to for we daren't
stop (if I stop I'm dead, or at least feel worthless or not needed), or
because work demands it. It certainly does for many, many people. Demands,
pressure. Stillness? silence, quietness? - a luxury just for the slower days of holidays already long gone? An ancient monk said, "It is the madman who is breathless." I went to a Quaker meeting recently. What happens there is that a group of people meet every week for an hour's silence together. It is a way of worship. Sometimes someone will speak for a few minutes but there is a lot of silence. People go to Buddhist monasteries in increasing numbers because what is offered there is meeting together in a prayer of stillness and silence. Up and down the land people are meeting together regularly in meditation groups, either religious or non-religious. The meeting strengthens people to maintain a discipline of time for stillness / silent prayer, whatever you call it, in their own private life, and make it a top priority. Sometimes in such a simple way, like turning off the telly for a half hour or saying firmly to the family - 'I am going to my bedroom for my quiet time -please leave me alone." I know one lady who in a busy household everyday locked herself in the lavatory - that was her way. Some people drop into an open church. Yet others park the car. People, all people, need stillness to balance with the activity and demands. It is not a luxury. People need withinness. To go within. Just as a plant needs roots. We know we need it from an early age. Memories of a person when she was 4:- 'I had an old trunk in the comer of the landing where I would go just to sit and think: It was called my peace corner and everyone in the family knew what it was. I went to it to be on my own." A secondary school boy tells his mother:- "If only I could sometimes get away from the noise and the energy, just somewhere quiet so I could catch up on my thoughts, then I would be all right. ......... " A ten year old says, 'T hat is my quiet place, where you can go if you're sad or annoyed I like to go when no one is there, and there is a deathly silence, except for my breathing, just your God, and the silence." I sometimes think that we are battering to death the souls of our young with a million distractions which never leave them room to go inside. In all the bombardment of outside things we need to be in touch with ourselves, and our self is inside. Silence is the most important thing there is. There are no words to describe the most important things that happen in life. No words to describe what it feels like to climb up the high fells up through the cloud into the sun for the first time. What sort of word is fantastic ? No words to tell how it is for the father who watches his child being born - he might faint! And the most most people can find faced with the miracle of a new child lying in its mother's arms is "Ah, isn't she lovely" No words for falling in love. No words for grief and death. C.S. Lewis, the hero of "Shadowlands ", says after the death of his wife, 'I want people to be here but I don't want them to say anything." No words to tell of the horror when the terrorist gunman shoots to death the father in his own hallway in front of his wife and children. No words. The real person grows out of the silence within. All true words come out of that centre. If we are used to going within, we will live through the best and the worst with balance. If we are not, our words are gobbledegook and we are like ships remaining forever restlessly at sea, never touching land, never finding safe harbour. Or like a house, empty of anything that would make it a home. It is a terrible thing to lose your own soul, even if you have gained the whole world. The business man called in on the holy man and said, "Look I'm desperately busy. Can you put the essence of religion into one paragraph for me"? "One word will do" said the holy one. "Incredible!" replied the other, "what amazing word is that?" "Silence." Book to look at - an easy read - "People need Stillness"- Wanda Nash. D.L.T. ISBNO -232.51971.4 (Recommended' for schools.) |
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