Meditation for Thursday 26th September 2024
For many of us living busy lives silence is a rare commodity. During the pandemic when so many people worked from home they commented on the pleasant experience of long periods of silence as they were uninterrupted by colleagues wanting to engage in casual chatter. Unnecessary talking was eliminated and there was a pervading atmosphere of quiet.
Silence is necessary for listening to oneself in a way that can sometimes be unnerving. We touch our emptiness, our loneliness, our deepest desires, our regrets and our longings. Yet even if silence disturbs we hunger for it. We know almost instinctively that it is vital for our mental health, for our spirit. It may seem like a contradiction but silence can be a form of self-communication and communication with others.
Regular meditation practice facilitates us to cultivate silence. Some people following their regular periods of meditation like to spend time with their thoughts, feelings and judgments. For a believer this is often done in silence ‘listening’ to God. Others grab a book and allow themselves to be absorbed in the stillness and silence in reading.
The silence is there within us; what we have to do is enter into the silence, relish it and allow it to refresh us.
“Silence is absolutely necessary for the human spirit if it is to thrive and not only thrive but to be creative, to have a creative response to life, to our environment, to friends. Because silence gives us room to breathe, room to be.
In silence you don’t have to be justifying yourself, apologizing for yourself, trying to impress anyone.” (Auth: John Main OSB, ‘Word Into Silence’, Canterbury Press, London 2014.)
Meditation
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