Unity of Silence and Monastic Prayer
The Importance of Meditation, Silence and Solitude
Thomas Merton explains in "Contemplative Prayer," the way of prayer, as described by the early monastic writers, meditation must be seen in its close relation to psalmodia, lectio, oratio and contemplatio. It is Part of a continuous whole, the entire unified life of the monk, conversatio monastica, his turning from the world to God. Meditation is apart from prayer, reading and contemplation, yet all three were intrinsically part of the monastic way of prayer. Meditation is apart from all thought, where as contemplation is deep in thought. In proportion as meditation takes on a more contemplative character, it becomes not only a means to an end, but also has something of the nature of an end. Hence monastic prayer, especially meditation and contemplative prayer, is not so much a way to find God as a way of resting in him whom is found, who loves, who is near as the breath, who is there to draw us to himself - our inner self, something that has been there all along. Yet meditation is not resting on a thing, on an object but it is resting on the absence of thoughts, apart from contemplation. God is thought to rest on in the sense that there is nothing to rest on and that is the essence of self, of God, it is as the Zen Buddhists call the no-mind. Prayer, reading, meditation and contemplation fill the apparent "void"' of monastic solitude and silence with the reality of presence, of being, and thus the true value of silence, to experience the emptiness and futility of those forms of distraction and useless communication, religious teachings, organizational functions, dependence on communal activity, which contribute nothing to the seriousness and simplicity of a life of prayer and meditation..
Isaac of Nineveh
Whatever one may think of the value of communal celebration with song and self-expression - and these have their place, communal and corporate worship is not properly "monastic, " which takes in the most in meditation. Even so, most monks are living lives of forced meditation, that of control, thus repressing desires, not meditation out of discipline but out of control. Discipline in meditation is one of silent retreat into contentment of self. Then the heart will dance with compassion and will overflow.
Control, that is what most monks do, is repression of desires that make a person cold and compassionless. This is not limited to Monks, Priests and Clergy, as most lived controlled lives and are dead and lifeless. They live, half awake. Controlled meditation and habitual religious organizational activity, in reality, acts as obstacles to knowing true inner peace, replaced by mechanical living. Silence, simplicity, contemplative and meditative unity, a deep personal integration in an attentive, watchful listening of "the heart" in awareness, that is when peace envelopes oneself and no longer is there the need to fill one's passions, but rather there is a contentment with simply being, in turn, an overflowing of energy, the energy of compassion. No longer is the desire of passion needed, which is to fill the void, thus repressed under controlled meditation and solitude, but with true meditation one is filled and overflowing, thus the need to share. Passion is the need to fill the void, compassion is the filled self overflowing to share. To share is now the operative, no longer the need to fill. One becomes wordless with their total surrender of the heart in silence. The only sin (to miss the mark) of man is simply to not be aware. The true joy of man is to be aware.
"A man of meditation comes to a point where there is no temptation left. Try to understand it. Temptation never comes from without; it is the repressed desire, repressed energy, repressed anger, repressed sex, repressed greed, that creates temptation. Temptation comes from within you, it has noting to do with the without. It is not that a devil comes and tempt you, it is your own repressed mind that becomes devilish and wants to take revenge. To control that mind one has to remain so cold and frozen that no life energy is allows to move into your limbs, into your body. If energy is allowed to move, those repressions will surface.
A man of meditation has leaned to be full of energy, at the maximum, optimum. He lives at the peak, he makes his abode at the peak. Certainly he has a warmth, but it is not feverish, it only shows life. He is not hot, he is cool, because he is not carried away by desires. He is so happy, that he is no longer seeking any happiness. He is so at ease, he is so at home, he is not going anywhere, he is not running and chasing . . his is very cool. " (1)
The inseparable unity of silence, meditation and monastic prayer was well described by a 7th century, Syrian monk, Isaac of Nineveh:
"Man are avidly seeking but they alone find who remain in continual silence. . . Every man who delights in a multitude of words, even though he says admirable things, is empty within. If you love truth, be a lover of silence. Silence like the sunlight will illuminate you in God and will deliver you from the phantoms of ignorance. Silence will unite you to God himself....
More than all things love silence: it brings you a fruit that tongue cannot describe. In the beginning we have to force ourselves to be silent. But then there is born something that draws us to silence. May God give you an experience of this "something" that is born of silence. If only you practice this, untold light will dawn on you in consequence . . . after a while a certain sweetness is born in the heart of this exercise and the body is drawn almost by force to remain in silence."
Isaac the Syrian, also called Isaac of Nineveh, lived and wrote during 'the golden age of Syriac Christian literature' in the seventh century. Cut off by language and politics from the Churches of the Roman Empire and branded 'Nestorian', the Church of the East produced in isolation a rich theological literature which only now becoming known to outsiders. Yet over the centuries and in all parts of Christendom, Isaac's works have been read and recommended as unquestionably orthodox.
Contemplative prayer, meditation and silence are best practiced in solitude apart from the noise of religious organizations, corporate worship and group activity, which in reality become as obstacles to finding inner peace and serve as distractions from knowing the true self that lives deep within our nothingness, that of greatness and unconditional love, the life force that connects us as "one" with all life as know it. Our awareness of this connection is that of Christ's words of "knowing that we are one, just as I and the Father are one." Apart from religious organizations, subculture movements and seminary institutions is conducive to living as unconditional, loving detached observers as opposed to ego involved participants, which ultimately becomes the result from seeking and joining group and corporate worship. The noise of religious activity can never replace the interior silence of meditation and the awareness of the true inner nature.
There is more God in the silence of the trees than there is in liturgical activity and corporate worship. There is naked truth that rests in nature, far apart and supreme to that of scripture and theology. Become more centered in your deep aloneness. That's what meditation is: becoming centered in one's own aloneness. The aloneness has to be so pure that not even a thought, not even a feeling disturbs it. The moment your aloneness is complete, your experience of it will become your enlightenment. Enlightenment is not something that comes from outside, nor in corporate activity, it is something that grows within you.
OSHO
In Latin the word sin has two meanings: one is "missing the target," and another that is even more beautiful - "without." Sin means to be without, to be outside yourself. Virtue means to be within - to be inside yourself. Virtue is the true unity of silence and monastic prayer, the meditation apart from the ego driven self, that is the self that empties itself and leaves you absolutely alone inside as a living fire. Sin, in Christian terms, according to St. Paul, is our false separation of self from the collective consciousness, our union with Christ. It is the failure to recognize that the entire realm of humanity, Jew, Buddhist, Hindu and Muslim alike are all clothed in the unity of Christ, apart from all separating doctrines, that "there are no more distinctions between Jew and Greek, slave and free, male and female . . . for all are One in Christ." (Galatians)
This is how Isaac of Nineveh achieved his inner awareness: cut off in isolation from the language and politics of the church. Finding peace within oneself is simply, yet not without great difficulty, reaching a higher level of awareness of God's presence, the true inner nature within. This peace can only be found behind our eyes, with humble and patient willingness to empty ourselves. No religious organization can ever do that for us. As seemingly as corporate worship and group participation appear to be of aid, in reality, they act as obstacles to finding inner peace, teaching us control in being a half awake person.
Total isolation and the life of a hermit is pathological fullness, the fullness of pure energy polluted from the lack of relationships and loving intimacy. Living without aloneness, going from one relationship to another is pathological emptiness, emptiness of one's connection with the consciousness that exists apart from the empirical ego-centered self. Yet finding inner peace is that of a solely individual experience, that of aloneness and awareness.
With silence of meditation comes the paradox of love. Both meditation and loving relationships act as a rhythm not in contradiction, but in complementary halves. With meditation and aloneness, comes the constant renewal of self discovery and the build up of compassion. With love and that of relationships, comes the overflowing release of this compassion. In this sense both meditation in aloneness and that of loving relationships are needed to keep the balance and flow of life in wholeness. Either direction by itself is to live a half life and is harmful. To live in the world in the company of others without aloneness is to be emptied and drained, never replenished. To live as a monk in silence without relating to others in sharing love, is to become filled with the energy of love that cannot be shared. Then it's sweetness becomes stagnant and sours. Most Monks are pathological. Only in the rhythm of both is true balance in the dance of life fulfilled.
Monastic writings can be found on the Cistercian Publications web site. Their catalogue can be requested from Cistercian Publications, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Michigan 49008.
Osho can be found on amazon.com
FOOTNOTES:
1
Osho - Love, Freedom and Aloneness, p. 219
