Again, some preparation will be needful. In our daily times of silence we sit with open ears. Traffic noises, household sounds, birdsong, the mew of a cat may make their ways to us. Though we have our eyes closed, light reaches the eyeballs through the skin of the eyelids. We are not buffeted by waves, but we ride at anchor in a harbour with a gentle swell.
Today, let’s put the boat in dry dock.
Let’s be completely silent.
It’s something those without a severe hearing impediment seldom experience. And unlike the ordinary silence of every day, which is also something of a rarity in the 21st century, profound silence is something our medieval forbears probably did not know all that often. There would always have been wind to rustle the trees, birdsong, the splash of a stream, a cowbell clanking in the distance, someone encouraging a team of plough oxen.
Today we are going away not just from the ambient music-news-traffic-advertising-blah-blah of the slightly deranged modern world, but even from the everyday background of life back into the stone age.
This is going to take some planning.
The best would be if you could find an abandoned coal mine or an ancient limestone cavern that you could have to yourself – though you’d have to take care about dripping water and it’s probably unrealistic. There are also companies that offer sensory deprivation tanks. I’ve never tried one. Some people report that they simply fall asleep, which is not our aim. But it could be interesting.
You could try getting away from human habitation. But unless you live near the Sahara desert (and that on a day when it’s not windy) I think you will find nature surprisingly noisy. If you have access to a room with thick walls and no windows that might do. But in any event I think you are probably going to need ear defenders or noise-cancelling headphones. You would also do well not to eat anything too rich so that your guts are nice and quiet.
Then I also suggest complete darkness if you can manage it. You may need to experiment with tinfoil on the windows. Scheduling this for night time is a good idea. An eye mask would help – but if you can achieve complete darkness without one that will be better, because the eye mask will remind you of its presence.
You should also give some thought to what you are going to sit on. Be comfortable. You don’t want to fall asleep, but you don’t want any pressures on the anatomy to distract. And make sure your arrangements for darkness don’t make your space uncomfortably hot.
Lastly you are going to need some way to keep time. You won’t, I hope, be able to hear an alarm. But you could use a smartphone which will light up and vibrate when your ten minutes are up. If you do that, please set it to airplane mode, so you don’t get any calls or notifications. A sports watch with a vibrating timer would be good too. Or you could simply go on until you feel like it’s enough and then turn on the lights – I bet you over-estimate how long you have been silent.
Try it all out a day in an advance so you know your arrangements work. Be sure you can hear absolutely nothing and you literally can’t see your hand in front of your face. Think through any ways in which you could be interrupted and guard against them.
Then when all is ready, ten minutes of complete silence. What was that like? Would you like to do that again? What can you still hear? What of this can you bring into your daily practice of listening prayer?
Season of Silence 