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THE PILGRIMAGE TO SILENCE
We are subjected to an intensity and consistency of noise that is absolutely unprecedented in human experience, and we don’t even take note of it. . . . Spend at least two minutes making a mental list of the things you hear at this moment. Now imagine that number multiplied by a factor of about 5,000. This is the amount of noise you endure every day.
But the Lord is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him.
CONTEMPLATION
The deepest entry into Christian Shamanism takes place after you leave the words of holy scripture, teachers, and even your own inner voice behind. After the words comes a great silence. This silence attracts the manifestation of a great, warm, and holy white light. It fills you with a knowing that stills all words while electrifying every sensory vessel. Here you find the heart of your spiritual pilgrimage. With this home of light, every day launches a unique spiritual journey that leads you back to your evening roots. Then you discover that every day is a whole life, an opportunity for fully coming into the pilgrimage of your soul.
MEDITATIVE FOCUS
See a sky filled with every word that has ever been written and spoken. One by one, each word dissolves into a cloud until only one word is left in the sky. This word is still. Watch each letter—s, t, i, l, and l—become smaller and smaller until they are small dots. Turn each dot into a raindrop and allow them to fall to the ground. After the rain falls, listen to how the world sounds when all the words are gone.
LOST PARABLE: THE ALTAR OF SILENCE
A nine-year-old girl once went to church and during a prayer heard a scratching sound underneath her feet. When she looked at the floor there was a small church mouse waving her to come closer. She bent over and the mouse asked her to crawl underneath the pew the next time there was a prayer. Since everyone’s eyes would be closed, she wouldn’t have to worry about being seen.
When the minister prayed again, the little girl practically threw herself beneath the church pew. She found the mouse holding onto a tiny lever, and within a second, that mouse pulled the lever, releasing the whole floor. Down and down the little girl traveled as if she were Alice in Wonderland. “How can this be?” she asked out loud. “Am I in a dream?”
With a soft whoosh she landed in the middle of a giant white pillow. Wherever she looked she saw clouds. The mouse, now with little angel wings, floated over to her and remarked, “You thought you fell, didn’t you? But you haven’t fallen, you’ve risen into the world of angels.”
“Why am I here?” the little girl asked. She heard a tapping sound, and then a whole chorus of mice angels began singing a most magnificent reply. Although she hadn’t noticed them before, they now all appeared in a circle around her, each with a ring of light perfectly outlining its face. In their song, the mice explained that she had fallen into a very still and quiet place in her mind. She had not walked through the door of sleep, but by some great miracle had entered a spot in her mind that was both completely quiet and full of sound.
The mice angels taught the girl many wonderful things about spirit. She was given special instructions on how to return to this place whenever she felt the need to do so. Over the years the little girl looked forward to going to church and disappearing under the pew whenever the minister offered a prayer. Although her visits to the under-the-pew-world seemed like hours, days, and sometimes longer, she always found herself returning to the church pew at just the moment the minister was saying, “Amen.”
And so it was that a little girl entered the kingdom of God by listening to a church mouse, who invited her to fall through the floor so that she might journey to the place of the great quiet where everything is heard. In that silence, she learned to hear for the first time.
ACTIVE MYSTICAL PRACTICE
Spend a day looking for the quietest place you can find. Return to that place the following week. Sit there in silence and pretend that a tiny creature invited you to fall into the Earth and find a place of absolute stillness. There you will be able to hear one sentence that will totally change your life. Fantasize what that sentence would be. Go home, and without deliberation, slowly and carefully write down the sentence with the hand you do not normally use to write with. Place this sheet of written words underneath your pillow when you sleep. Before going to bed, tell yourself, “I’m now going to fall into that place of quiet and hear what lies beneath my pillow.” Tell no one about the experiences that happen to you as a result of this practice. Be very still about it, even to your own inquiring mind. If you don’t remember any dreams, be thankful that your inner silence has quieted its deepest teaching.