“If there is no silence beyond and within the words of doctrine, there is no religion, only religious ideology. For religion goes beyond words and actions, and attains to the ultimate truth in silence. When this silence is lacking, where there are only the “many words” and not the One Word, then there is much bustle and activity, but no peace, no deep thought, no understanding, no inner quiet. Where there is no peace, there is no light. The mind that is hyper-active seems to itself to be awake and productive, but it is dreaming. Only in silence and solitude, in the quiet of worship, the reverent peace of prayer, the adoration in which the entire ego-self silences and abases itself in the presence of the Invisible God, only in these “activities” which are “non-actions” does the spirit truly awake from the dream of a multifarious and confused existence.”
Thomas Merton. Honorable Reader: Reflections on My Work. Edited by Robert E. Daggy (New York: Crossroad, 1989): 115.
Emphasis mine.
3 comments
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June 24, 2008 at 7:08 pm
Meander
i should try this. my mind is always whirring.
June 26, 2008 at 10:06 am
Mike Lovell
Any of you have any suggestions on how to find this silence when you find yourselves constantly surrounded by two young children just like your parent’s wished upon you??
June 26, 2008 at 10:52 am
helenl
Hi Meander,
Our minds do “whir” more than we like to admit.
Hi Mike,
Now that’s the question, isn’t it.
I once heard a pastor, from the pulpit, ridicule the commercial about Calgon Bubble Bath. “Calgon take me away.” He implied that only worldly people needed such a prop. The spiritual would would find their rest in Bible study and prayer.
Well, maybe so, if you can tell you secretary, “Hold my calls. I don’t want to be interrupted for an hour.”
But in the real world, children exist. And they interrupt. That fifteen minute bath may be the only minutes of uninterrupted reverie a woman with small children got.
Or in this case, a man taking a shower. But you get the point.
Point of view is everything.
(Which is, of course, why we have to ask blacks what they need, rather than listening to the “Wise One Who Knows.”
Left you a comment on “Just Try to Tell Me This Isn’t Racism.”