Christian Meditation: Power of Silence

Sep 14, 2004, 12.00am IST
Christopher Mendonca.

Silence is much more than the absence of sound; it is the autonomous pre-existing entity in which God creates. It is the source to which all words return to attain true meaning. Silence is the womb of the tangible world. In the Christian Biblical version of Creation, God 'spoke' and the world came into being. With the pronouncing of the Word, speech became primary, but silence remained primordial.


The heart of Christian meditation is to return to this primordial state of being. It is a journey from words into the creative word of God; this Word is enveloped by silence. By its very nature, silence is unexploitable, often purposeless and for that reason very frightening.
The power of silence is its ability to mediate the irreconcilable. Differences can coexist without tension because silence is non-judgmental. In an all-absorbing silence, differences travel towards one another with no need to swallow or disintegrate or demolish each other. Silence frees us from expectations so that we can understand and resolve a myriad irreconcilable elements.
Silence has also the power to help us realise how unrealistic our sense of self-importance is. Words are often inadequate to express what we want to say. It is silence that puts an end to our self-delusion, to our belief that we could drown the voices of dissent by our logic and "explanations".
Most of all, silence opens the door to forgiveness. Spoken words determine relationships for good or for ill, for love or for hate. But words once spoken sink into the oblivion from which they came. This 'forgetting' opens the door to forgiveness. It is not, however, as if the word simply disappears into the general hubbub only to pop up again at some unexpected and unbidden moment. Rather, by choosing to 'let go' we allow the suppleness of silence to reshape the word's sharp edges. Forgiveness is thus a 'letting go' of what has been 'determined' by our speech. Silence is the deep expanse in which this letting go takes place. Meditation allows us to make new beginnings.
Ironical as it may seem, silence is the foundation of all interpersonal communication. When we communicate with each other, we are often unaware that silence sits in at every conversation. Silence is the third speaker in a conversation. That is why the listener receives more that just the words that the speaker has given. The more we are aware of this, the more we will speak from this silence. What transpires then in a conversation is between the silence of 'the one' and the silence of 'the other'. What moves back and forth between people is not words but silence. When this happens, we no longer notice any opposition between ourselves and the community and instead of standing against each other, we face the silence together. The journey into silence strengthens community bonding.


The repetition of a word, an apparently 'useless' activity — Ma-ra-na-tha in the tradition of Christian Meditation — allows journeying back into the word. It is a journey from word to silence. The 'daily practice' of Christian Meditation allows us to experience these qualities of silence first hand. Silence is not the same as not talking. Rather, it is a deep presence within a person, a presence that shapes not only every word but also every movement and every gesture. Such an abiding presence guides a person to a life that is beyond the word and ultimately beyond himself. Truly the journey into silence through meditation is one that fosters non-violence and helps build community togetherness.
 
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