On our way back from school yesterday, I was telling my brother an experience I had the previous day. Just before getting to what I thought was the peak of the gist, he exclaimed, "Ah!" I thought he was reacting to my story. To my amazement he added: "I like the design of that car that just passed." It then dawned on me that he was not listening. Without further "warning" I abruptly ended the story, and shyly joined in the rather new but odd discussion.
Some thoughts then flashed into my head. It seems there is a connection between silence and listening. Of course, we can only listen when we are silent. But to be quiet is not the same as to be silent. My brother was quiet while I was telling the story, but he was grossly distracted internally; he was not silent. Hence, he was not listening. What do you think? Which do we need in meditative prayer, silence or quietness?
It will be quite exhaustive to respond to your quest for a distinction between silence and listening or quiet and silence. perhaps the connection betweem them may be seen by introducing a new concept - 'attention!'
ReplyDeleteQuite interesting! like many things the practice of silence is one that must be arrived at at the cost of some effort. it is not just a physical way of being(even though it may include it),it is an inner way of being 'present' in the midst of any 'other.'
ReplyDeleteIt is really difficult to distiquish between being quiet and being silent.But to progress in life one needs quiet moments to review his daily activities. But more importantly to communicate with God one needs to 'tune ' to a silent mode...
ReplyDeleteRemmy.
Yes! The distinction is not an easy one. However, silence and quietness can be distingquished but they are not seperable. It seems they are different degrees of the same thing!
ReplyDeleteAnd this is where "Attention" may be introduced. Can we say silence is that level of quietness that involves attention? If yes, it would be incorrect to replace "silence" with "attention."
Remmy, you have a point there. We need to "tune to a silent mode" for self reflection and prayer.
We do not replace silence with attention juddy, we do not seperate them either. Silence is the fruit, attention the effort! this is the tunning Remmy should be speaking of!!!
ReplyDelete