115 – Silence – Intention on the Spiritual Journey

A few weeks ago the mailings that come from Richard Rohr’s Center for Action and Contemplation were concerned with silence.  One of the mailings contained the following –

“The simplest spiritual discipline is some degree of solitude and silence. But it’s the hardest, because none of us want to be with someone we don’t love. Besides that, we invariably feel bored with ourselves, and all of our loneliness comes to the surface.  We won’t have the courage to go into that terrifying place without Love to protect us and lead us, without the light and love of God overriding our own self-doubt. Such silence is the most spacious and empowering technique in the world, yet it’s not a technique at all. It’s precisely the refusal of all technique.

(Adapted from Radical Grace: Daily Meditations, p. 106, day 114)”  (if you want to subscribe to Rohr’s mailings, go to  http://cac.org/sign-up .)

What about the case he makes for silence and solitude?

” … simplest … hardest … terrifying …  most spacious … empowering … refusal of all technique.”

Does he overstate the importance of silence? Or, do you hear a deep truth in what he says?

I know a number of people who find silence hard but not simple.  Is this because we approach it as only a “technique?”  But then, how can it be the “refusal of all technique?”  Don’t we start with technique, the rules before we move beyond mere mechanics?

I certainly have more questions today than answers.  But I keep remembering Rohr is not alone is claiming so much for silence and solitude.  Again and again I hear and read how important silence is.

What do you think today?  How do you incorporate silence in your life?  Or, if you don’t, why?

 


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