Learning to be Silent

"It was said about Abba Agathon that for three years he carried a pebble around in his mouth until he learned to keep silent." -Philokalia

Friends,

I've never tried this(pebble in the mouth), but perhaps it's worth a shot. Learning to keep silent here is not just about talking, but about interior silence. One of the reasons people go to structured silent intensive meditation retreats is so they can put themselves in a situation where not only are they not required to talk, but they are required not to talk. They find great relief in being somewhere where talking can be put aside.

We place great importance on our opinions. We continually reinforce our view of the world, our judgments of what's happening in the world, and our prescriptions for how the world should be through our speech, but even before that, through out thought. Yet the spiritual life of meditation is about meeting the world the way it is, being present with loving kindness in the conditions that are before us. Yet in speech we often proclaim and attempt to gain support from others in our insistent view of the world. In today's culture this process has reached a point of deification where individuals and groups are given deference if they can shout down other points of view. There is no respect or place for listening for understanding.

The most important form of listening is the listening we do at the center of our own being, the Heart. Listening to the "still, small, voice" that speaks to us in the language of silence. In the context of my present extended retreat I sit in silent meditation ( sans pebbles in my mouth) in order to do precisely that, listen, to give the fullness of Attention and Intention to a Life and Presence that is the font of my own life. This can be both difficult (because of our life long patterns) and also liberating. It is liberating to cease from the compulsion of placing one's own opinions and thought forms on the altar of veneration and to defend them. So I learn to listen. I learn to listen in the midst of my daily work, my writing, my walks with my dog, and riding my bike. To listen you must keep silent, receptively silent and present within. The opinions, thoughts, and emotional reactions are allowed to slide by with no place to attach in my soul. That is my practice, I hope.

When I do talk these days, it is mostly to my wife, Jeanette. Hopefully I am learning to listen to her as well. And in the days ahead when I resume a more active pattern of interaction with my friends and the world at large, I shall learn to listen more, and be less insistent about my opinions.
Blessings on your day,
Bill Ryan
cmpnwtr@earthlink.net