دار بيبليون
Lwiis T. SALIBA
Silence in the Great Religions
Insights into the conception and experiences of Silence in Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity and Islam
Lecture given at the Sorbonne
Paris 29/05/2001
In an age where people are in constant competition to talk and even chatter; in an age where noise has become synonymous with culture and civilization, in a country where we often spend as much on talking on the telephone and in the media as we do on eating, in such an age and such a country, is it not strange to speak of Silence? And is it really through speech, which is the very opposite of silence, that one can express a certain experience of Silence? And that one can communicate the message of Silence to others?
Isn’t talking about the Silence, in a way, a betrayal of the Silence?
It is clear, it seems to me, that the very act of talking about silence is in itself a challenge and an adventure.
- A challenge in approaching the essence of Silence, which words cannot express, and never will.
- And a risky adventure: the risk being to empty our experience of silence of its content, by the simple fact of talking about it, without being sure that the message gets through in its authenticity. But my love for silence and the experience of silence led me to accept, for once, the challenge and the adventure, on the following basis: if I can convince just one person of the importance of integrating silence into his or her life, the message will get through, and it is then up to that person to pass it on to another.
This talk is both a talk and an invitation. A presentation of my own experience of silence in Chandra Swami’s ashram and in a Buddhist monastery in India; and an invitation to devote a little time in our life to silence.
My own experience of silence can be divided into three stages:
1 – Meeting a silent realized master, and living with him for two months.
2 – A personal experience of silence by not speaking for a month.
3 – An experience of what is called in Buddhism the Noble Silence in a Buddhist monastery. This personal experience I will bring it up during the discussion that will follow this lecture. And to show that silence is an integral part of both our monotheistic traditions, Christian and Muslim, I will begin with an overview of the conception and experiences of silence in these two traditions. I will then discuss Silence in the Hindu and Buddhist traditions.
Silence in the Christian Tradition
I- The Silence of Jesus and Mary
“Speak O Lord, your servant is listening” 1 Samuel 3/9 said the prophet Samuel in the Bible.
The word of God requires first of all the silence of man. And it is only in the Silence that we can listen to this word.
“Speak in your heart, on your bed be silent” said David in his Psalms (Psalm 4/5). And if we take the life of Christ as told in the Gospels, we see that of the thirty-three years he lived on earth, Jesus spent thirty years in Silence, as if the three years of preaching and proclaiming the Gospel required thirty years of preparation and silence. Jesus also reversed the rule of the pure and the impure in Judaism: “It is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a man, but what comes out of the mouth, that defiles a man” Matthew 15/10.
It is man’s words that make him unclean, not his food.
“Establish, O Lord, a guard at my mouth; watch over the door of my lips; restrain my heart from speaking evil…” Psalm, 141/3.
Jesus was also born in a silent family, Joseph lived his whole life in silence. As for his mother Mary, she was the ideal example of silence, the gospel of Luke says of her: “As for Mary, she kept all these things carefully, pondering them in her heart” Luke 2/19.
Mary, whom the Church calls the Queen of heaven and earth, the Queen of the prophets and angels, and the Mother of God, accomplished her entire mission in meditation and silence.
The Qur’an, on the other hand, has emphasized the role of silence in Mary’s life, it says in the Surah of Mary: “Eat and drink in satisfaction and peace and if you happen to see any human being say: “I have vowed silence to the Most Merciful and I will not speak to any human being today”, 19/26.
The interpreters of the Qur’an explain this verse by saying that Mary was fasting from words as one fasts from food.
Mary is for me the first master of silence. And in one of my Arabic poems dedicated to her I say:
You bore a child who was a grace to the world.
You kept his secret until the time came.
Your silence rang out and overcame all the noise of men.
Your silence surpassed all wisdom and spread throughout the world.
Your silence is a lesson for me and for all researchers.
A weapon and a guide in our dark path.
Teach me to live, like you, in silence and to keep all these things in my heart until death.
II- Silence in the Tradition of the Christian Hermits.
To illustrate the experience and role of silence in Christian spirituality, I have chosen a great Eastern Catholic Saint of the 19th Century.
A Lebanese saint and miracle worker who lived most of his life in silence: Saint Charbel. Charbel is but one representative of an Eastern Christian tradition of hermits who took silence as a way to listen to the call of the divine.
The statute of the hermits of the order of Maronite monks to which Charbel belonged insists in 2 of its 13 articles on the necessity of silence and its importance.
Article 5 states: “Any meeting for unhelpful conversations is forbidden.
The hermit will only talk to his brother in case of illness”…
In article 6 we read: “The hermit has no right to have friendships outside his brother hermits, who like him keep silence. To speak too much even in useful matters is to disturb the atmosphere of prayer”.
In the rules annexed to this statute it is mentioned in rule 4: “Silence is a duty, and in the case of a major necessity the hermit should speak succinctly and in a low voice”.
In terms of lived experience, Charbel was a true hero of Silence. During his entire monastic life, which lasted almost half a century, he kept a deep silence, and rarely spoke. He even lived the silence of the eyes and senses, and what Buddhism calls: the Noble Silence to which we will return. One example of the life of silence he led was in welcoming his visitors. Father Jean Indari, one of his contemporaries tells us: “I was still in the novitiate, when I had the opportunity to visit Father Charbel in his hermitage. When he saw me, he approached me, invited me to sit down and left. A few minutes later, he returned with a book in his hand and gave it to me, asking me to read it aloud. It was the biography of St. Anthony the Great. I read a chapter, and at the end, Father Charbel took the book back and left”. Such was his way of welcoming the monks, concludes Abbot Jean Indari. Another story illustrates his love of silence. Father Michel Abi Ramia tells us that, after Father Charbel returned from a visit to a certain patient, he asked him: “I hope you enjoyed this walk, Father Charbel. What is new? Tell us about it”.
Father Charbel answers him succinctly and spontaneously: “I went that way, and returned that way”.
About Charbel’s silence, one of his contemporaries says: “The silence in his mouth emanates from the flow of the invocation of God in his heart”. We read in the Imitation of Christ, Charbel’s favourite book:
In Silence the soul acquires great progress and discovers the true meaning of the Holy Scriptures”, (1/20).
In a word, Charbel is a true model who lived and experienced what the monastic rules call: “Majesty and Nobility of Silence”.
This is an expression of Saint Benedict. In this idea, St. Benedict joins what is said in the Buddhist monastic tradition about the Noble Silence… which we will see later.
Silence in the Muslim Tradition
1- Silence in the life of the Prophet.
The life of the Prophet is a model that Muslims have tried to emulate throughout the centuries. Sufis have drawn inspiration from it in their spiritual endeavors and lives.
Silence and solitude were an important part of the Prophet’s life, especially in the time before the proclamation of his prophethood. This period was full of meditation, silence and prayer. The Prophet spent it in “Ghar Hara'”, a secluded place near Mecca according to the “Sîra”, the Prophet’s biography. This period lasted a few years and was the example that inspired the Sufis in their hermitages and experiences of silence.
The Prophet is reported to have kept silence after the evening prayer. Abu Barza, one of his companions, emphasized this habit of the Messenger of Islam.
This is in line with David’s recommendation in the Psalms, already mentioned.
In the Traditions (Sayings of the Prophet), we see him repeating several times his advice to the believers to control and preserve their tongue, i.e. their words and to keep silence.
For example, he says: “He who keeps silence is saved” as if to say that silence is the key to paradise and salvation. In another hadith he says: “Silence is wisdom, and those who have it are rare”.
In a third: Silence is the best worship.
Abu Zarr, a companion of the Prophet reported from him: “You have to keep a long silence. It is he who drives Satan away from you, and helps you to keep the precepts of your religion”.
Caliph Omar reported from the Prophet: “What I fear most for my community is the tongue”. Abu Hûraîra, another companion, said: “Whoever believes in God and in the Last Day, let him speak well or let him keep silent”.
Another companion, “Aqaba bin Nafi'” asked the Prophet what salvation is and he replied, “Guard your tongue well, and weep over your sin.
It is reported from him: “God hates the man who repeats the words in his tongue as the cow chews the grass in its tongue”. It is clear from these traditions that Silence is a virtue that the believer must have. It is a worship and a key to salvation.
The control of the tongue saves the believer from many evils.
The Prophet also stresses the importance of another virtue: “Kitmân” Discretion.
Let discretion help you in your business.
Keep secretly your gold, your movement, “Ihfaz Zahâbaka Wa Zahabaka”.
I have personally experienced the paramount importance of discretion in several stages of my life, and in a word I can say: the quickest way to make our projects fail is to talk about them before we accomplish them.
Just as the Prophet practiced silence and valued its importance in life, he was also surrounded by silent people who believed in him and defended him in many dangerous stages of his life.
Among these people was his wife Khadija. She was the first person who believed in him, supported him and encouraged him. She did this with courage and in silence.
And among the silent ones around the Prophet was his friend and first successor the Caliph Abu Bakr. He was the first man to believe in him. It is said of him that he used to put a stone in his mouth to prevent himself from speaking.
Silence Among Sufis
Sufis have experienced silence, lived it and taught it. Qusheiri, an ancient Sufi author, writes: “Sufis have always preferred silence. Because they realized how many vices there are in talking, such as pretentiousness, the tendency to distinguish oneself from others and other moral vices…”.
Silence is one of their moral pillars. Among the great Sufis who preferred silence was Al-Junaid who was called “Sheikh Al-Ta’ifa”, the master of the Sufi community and the Sultan of the sages, given his station among the Sufis. He used to say: “If the voice opens for the servant, he will not need words, because the expression is to advise the other, whereas God does not need it. He also said: “He who has known God, his tongue is weary (or completely tired). This word is explained as follows: he who knows God by his heart, his tongue becomes incapable of proclaiming. Proclamation becomes a veil. It is said that Abu Bakr Al-Shibli was once in a Sufi meeting at Junaid’s house. He shouted out loud: “Oh my wish”, meaning Al-Haqq: God. Junaid then said to him: Oh Abu Bakr, if God was really your wish, why all these allusions and designations when He does not need them? And if not, why do you say what you do not mean, when He knows the substance of your thoughts?
Shibli then asked Junaîd for forgiveness.
This anecdote reminds us of what was said by another great Sufi before these two. Abu Yazid Al-Bistamî (3rd s.h):
“Those who refer to Him the most, are those who are farthest from Him”.
Ghazali, one of the greatest philosophers, scholars and Sufis of Islam said… of the Sufi: “He should not speak unless it is really necessary. For speaking preoccupies the heart. The greed of the heart for talking is enormous, which makes the heart turn away from zikr (Recalling and repeating the name of God).
Silence fertilizes the spirit, it favours devotion and teaches piety”.
It is said that the Sufi Abu Hamza of Baghdad was a man who knew how to speak well (a good talker), and one day he heard a call that said to him: “You have spoken well, it remains for you to keep silent. And since then he kept silence until his death.
The Sufi Ali Bin Bakkar said: “God has made two doors for everything, but He has made four doors for the tongue: the lips are two doors and the teeth are two doors.
Another said, “God has created for man one tongue, two eyes and two ears, so that he may hear and see more than he speaks.
Other Sufis have said: Learn silence as you learn to speak, if speech can guide you, silence can save you.
I – Silence in the teaching and experience of Chandra Swami.
Chandra Swami is a contemporary Indian sage. He was born on 5/03/1930, in Bhuman Shah, a village currently in Pakistan. This village was named after one of the great sages and saints of the 18th century: Baba Bhuman Shah Ji (1687 – 1747) whom Chandra Swami considers as his teacher.
Chandra Swami was initiated into Baba Ji’s teaching by the tenth master in the line of Baba Ji’s successors. And by a direct mystical intervention of Baba Ji according to Chandra Swami’s expression.
At the age of twenty-two, Chandra Swami decided to live in seclusion. He spent eight years in a cave in Jammu Kashmir, where he practiced intensive Sadhana. He then spent ten years in hermitage in a forest near Haridwar. Then, in response to the wishes of his disciples, he moved to an ashram in Haridwar in 1970, leaving it for another one in 1990 on the banks of the holy river Yamuna. In 1991, he was chosen by the famous American magazine “life magazine” as a representative of Hinduism, in a report on the spiritual men of the contemporary world. Among other personalities were Pope John Paul II, the 14th Dalai Lama and others…
Chandra Swami’s Ashram welcomes serious spiritual seekers from all traditions. Several of Chandra Swami’s books have been translated into French.
The Silence in the experience of Chandra Swami
Since 1984, Chandra Swami has entered into total silence. And he always keeps this silence. He replied to his disciples who often asked him to cut this silence: “I have fallen in love with silence. Love knows no reason, does it not?
For the past 17 years, Chandra Swami has abstained from speaking. While continuing to teach and guide his disciples. His language, if one can say it, is a piece of paper and a pen that do not leave him. He expresses on paper all that he wants to communicate, without cutting this long silence which we do not know how long it will last!
On his vow of silence Chandra Swami says, “I have not taken a vow of silence. I love and enjoy silence. There is no particular reason for it. In fact I am just following the “inner voice”. The sweet voice of my master.
I don’t know how long this silence will continue. Everything is in his hands. I will speak when my master decides, if he wishes me to speak.
I did not come here to teach or predict. My purpose, if there is one, is to awaken. I have discovered that silence is far more powerful than speech. (p104)( [1]).
On the question: for us, is silence desirable? Chandra Swami answers: Silence that has a purpose is not complete, it is not true silence, just as love that has a purpose is not true love.
Silence observed for the purpose of communicating with the Divine is part of sadhana. The Divine is the essence of man, so there is no need to speak to communicate with the Divine. It is not good to imitate others. When you are not working, there is nothing to prevent you from observing periods of silence and devoting yourself solely to prayer and meditation at those times.
And on the usefulness of silence as long as one uses writing to maintain relationships with others Chandra Swami replies: Yes, it has advantages. You are in control of matters that you otherwise talk about with complacency. You can ask A. how difficult it is for him to be in silence. You do it in a way that no one notices. You express yourself in a more political way through speech, but if you write, you cannot stray from the subject, you have to crystallize your thought. However, true silence comes when you are in complete control of your speech and thought.
On silence and its usefulness in maintaining inner energy Chandra Swami says:
“From a pragmatic point of view, silence allows you to maintain the energy of feeling and thinking, and you do not feel “closed”, on the contrary you are filled with energy, and this energy wants to express itself. It is also true that if you verbally express feelings or emotions, positive or negative, if for example you tell a person that you are angry with them for such and such a reason, your anger will lose its intensity. This also applies to your spiritual experience, that love or experience loses its intensity (…).
You receive energy through silence, you release it through speech. It is just like when you fall asleep: all mental and physical activities stop and you feel rested when you wake up. Through sleep, the body and nervous system rest and recover energy. In silence you rest more than in sleep”. (p 128 – 129).
Do you start talking again?
“For forty years people have been listening to me and forty years they have been asking me the same questions and hearing almost the same answers. The same questions are always on their minds. They go to all the saints and ask them the same questions over and over again. So there is something wrong” (p. 244).
On the cause of his silence, Chandra Swami replies:
“I have spent more than thirty years talking and nothing has changed in the world, the situation in the world is going from bad to worse. Now I observe the silence. Maybe if people don’t talk too much and impose their opinions, beliefs and preconceived notions on others, be it political, social or religious, the world situation could improve. But that is not the reason for my silence. There is no reason for this silence”. (p 234).
Silence in the Hindu Scriptures
The synonym for silence in Hindu culture is “mouna”. It is a Sanskrit word, composed of two syllables: Ma and Na. Ma comes from Manas Mind or Na mind, from nahi meaning No, Mouna therefore means the state of no thought. The Mind in the state of Mouna is not disturbed by thoughts, emotions, sensations, desires, etc.
The Hindu sages say that when the sadhak (seeker) reaches the state of no thought, he will be able to listen to the divine voice or the inner voice.
The Kena Oupanishad, one of the ancient Hindu texts, defines Brahman, the Absolute God, as follows: “He who cannot be explained by words, but by his words one gains knowledge is Brahman. That which is expressed by words, and that which people worship is not Brahman”.
The Hindu Sacred Scriptures distinguish four forms of silence:
1 – Vak Mouna: to refrain from speaking.
2 – Mano Mouna: Silence of the mental activity.
3 – Karana Mouna: Silence of the outer limbs of the body such as hands and feet and abstinence from movement.
4 – Kasta Mouna: Abstinence of the inner and outer limbs together from all activity, including the mind.
These scriptures add that the best form of silence is the fourth: a total abstinence from all activity.
Swami Shivananda, the great contemporary Indian sage, defines different kinds of silence as follows
“If you do not allow your eyes to see anything, it is silence of the eyes. If you do not allow your ears to hear anything, it is silence of the ears. If you maintain a complete fast from food, it is silence of the tongue. If you sit in a state of complete stillness, it is the silence of the hands and legs.
These definitions of Swami Shivananda bring us to what Buddhism has known from its beginning and called: The Noble Silence”.
Silence in the Buddhist tradition
The Buddhist tradition gives great importance to silence. Buddhist monks have practiced silence in all its forms. And the Buddha is reported to have said:
“Without Silence, there is no true meditation. Buddhist sages ask those who want to learn meditation to practice the Noble Silence during the whole period of the teaching.
Noble Silence is the highest form, the ideal form of silence.
The Noble Silence is not limited to the silence of words, but also includes the silence of the eyes, ears, touch and other senses. To achieve total stillness especially during Meditation.
1 – Silence of the eyes
There are synonyms for the silence of the eyes in the Christian and Muslim traditions.
Jesus said:
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery. Well, I say to you. I say to you, whoever looks at a woman to desire her has already committed adultery with her in his heart”, Math 5:27.
It is an invitation to look in a specific way. And there are equivalents in both the Buddhist and Hindu traditions, where the sadhak is asked to look at the woman as a mother and to call her Mataji: my mother.
In Islam, a tradition of the Prophet says: You have the right to the first look, you will be judged on the second one, there the 4 religions agree on the fact of controlling the look.
Muslim Sufis and Christian hermits have practiced forms and kinds of eye silence. I quote here two anecdotes. One about Abu Yazid Al-Bistami, a Sufi of the 3rd century A.H. 9th century Ch. And another about St Charbel.
It is said that Abu Yazid was once in the presence of his Sheikh (master) Abu Ali Assindi.
The latter asked him: “Bring me the book on the window”. Abu Yazid then asked him:
– What window? Then his master said to him: “You have been coming to my house for years, and you don’t know where the window is?
Abu Yazid replied, “What have I to do with the window? I came here to see you, not to look around you. And when I am with you, I close my eyes to everything else.
Then the sheikh said: “If this is your condition, you can go home, your work here is finished”.
On Charbel his hermitage companion tells that one day they were working with the monks and plowing the land. In the evening, Father Charbel asked his friend: How many pairs of cows were plowing with us? Three!” replied his friend. You have been working with us since the morning and you have not seen them! Charbel bowed his head and kept silent.
2 – Silence of the ears and tongue.
The Buddhist sages ask the student to keep his ears silent during the training, to move away from any noise and to stay in a quiet and calm place. The use of radio, TV, telephone… is strictly forbidden.
As for food, we are content with two light meals a day, for those who cannot fast.
3 – Silence of touch
Students refrain from body contact, and from touching others during the teaching period. A total segregation between men and women is respected.
This is the silence of touch. Others also refrain from touching or carrying money in any form.
This is a practice found among Hindu sages and Christian hermits too.
It is said that Chandra Swami, for example, took a vow during his early years of sadhana not to touch money or carry it around. He travelled around India for many years keeping this vow.
As for Saint Charbel, we see that he neither touched nor carried money during his entire monastic life which lasted about half a century.
One of the priests contemporary to him tells:
A faithful man asked me to give Father Charbel the alms for a mass. When I presented him with the money, he flatly refused to take it.
I insisted on explaining to him that the intention of this devotee was to give him this money from hand to hand. There he held out his hand, and I put the money in it, and he walked over with his hand outstretched towards his comrade, and without looking at the amount of money, asked him: “Please take this”.
4 – Silence of the body
Buddhist Sadhaks try to abstain from all movement during meditation, and to keep total stillness.
This is in homage to the Buddha when he stood under the tree and took the vow not to move from that place, and to abstain from all movement until he reached liberation: Nirvana.
These were some flashes of some of the conceptions and experiences of Silence in the spiritual traditions of the four great religions of our time. I tried to show how the founders of these religions, or their Holy Scriptures, meet on the importance of silence and its experience.
I have also tried to show in this talk how the mystics of these four religions meet, each from their own spiritual heritage, in similar experiences of silence. And I almost dare to say that it is an experience that unites them despite the differences in beliefs and religions. Religions, said Ramana Maharshi, are rivers, which meet and unite in the ocean of Silence.
[1] – The references are to the book by Chandra Swami: The Song of Silence.