‘Treasury of Blessings and Giver of Life’
Today many of us live with noise. Noise, high levels of unwanted sound affect the health of many people. Noise pollution is a hazard and not only for humans. Our ocean marine life is impacted by the sounds of ship engines and drilling for oil. Some churches blast their congregations with music at a level which over time will result in impaired hearing!
Yet at the
same time many live with an unwanted silence. The aching silence of loneliness
and loss, the frozen silence from a broken relationship or simply being
ignored. The silence of being silenced or the sheer indifference of others. This unwanted silence often brings a cacophony
inside one’s head, the noise of unwanted thoughts and feelings.
When I
offered mindfulness at the Hutt Street Centre for those experiencing
homelessness I heard about terror, trauma, tragedy, and the tug of addiction.
In those sessions we learnt to turn down the noise inside with some brief mindfulness
exercises. These supported us to make
better choices, be less reactive, cope with hitherto stressful situations such
as an encounter at Centrelink. We came
together as a community of mindful practice sharing our stories and encouraging
each other. It was for me a memory I will never forget.
‘The
still small voice of calm’ drew me to Buddhism in my teenage years which were full of anxiety,
anger, and anguish. I saw a television program about a small group of Buddhist
monks who had come to live in a small English village not far from my own.
There was a quality of peaceful joy in these people that drew my curiosity. I
visited my local library, borrowed books, decided to follow the Buddhist noble
eightfold path, and started to meditate. I found it very difficult but
persevered. This led however to more and more questions about the meaning of
life.
One evening
something happened that is beyond explanation but none the less became a
turning point for me. I felt a Presence enter the room which I knew was God the
Trinity. I had already begun to read the Gospels. My heart became filled with a
peace beyond understanding, ‘the silence of eternity, interpreted by love’
and I surrendered to Christ but also heard God calling me to serve in ordained
ministry and to make God the centre of my whole life. Seek and you will find
yet without the silence of Buddhism the loving and transforming silence of the
Living Christ in the cross and resurrection of Jesus may well have been missed.
I felt in
that experience beyond all words love flowing through me and although this
feeling faded over the next few weeks life had changed. I had discovered the
treasure, the gift of a life guiding wisdom. Moreover, I made new friends who
were Christians and a new priest arrived at our village church who became a
wise mentor and guide. ‘the gracious calling of the Lord, let us like them
without a word rise up and follow thee’
My story is
in no sense unique. From a whole series of conversations with people and from
my own research I know that spiritual experiences are very common, often at
times of crisis or illness when people meet the Presence of Love or see Light
shining the path ahead reassuring them they are not alone.
Silence can indeed
be golden and as the mystics say, ‘silence is God’s first language and the language
of heaven (Revelation 8.1). Silence is not the absence of sound but a sense of
balance, peacefulness, equilibrium, even in the storms of life.
I have found
silence down the years in using a simple prayer, ‘Lord Jesus Christ, Son of
the Living God have mercy on me a sinner.’ It the prayer of Bartimaeus, the
Jesus Prayer of the Orthodox Church is for me the pearl of great price. One of
my teachers, the late Bishop Kallistos writes ‘The Jesus Prayer is not just
a hypnotic incantation, but a meaningful phrase, an invocation addressed to
another Person. Its object is not relaxation but alertness, not waking slumber
but living prayer’ (page 122 The Orthodox Way).
Former
Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams who daily like many others meditates
with the Jesus Prayer asked a group of clergy: ‘What keeps you human, what
are the things that remind you that you are profoundly special, and not special
at all in another sense?’ He
reminded his hearers that to hear God speaking to us as individuals and as
community we need the golden silence which comes from stillness and
self-awareness, learning to listen, turning down the noise inside even for a
few minutes here and there.
Buddhist
meditation, attention to the breath and body made space in my life to
experience the true and living God. I have gone on to teach meditation for 20
years (without the Buddhism) seeking to be a scribe of heaven bringing from the
treasure things old and new. The success
of meditation I say to students is not feeling good on the cushion but it is in
an improved ability to be present to your work, to your partner to your body to
your life, in mind full ways. Silence is golden when it trains us in listening
more and responding at the right time. For the author of the hymn ‘Dear Lord
and Father of Mankind’, John Greenleaf Whittier, sitting in silence with
other Quakers led him to a profound conviction that his life was calling him to
speak and organise in support of enslaved people placing his life in peril.
Our Murray diocesan
consultation at Sevenhill spoke of how much we value a prayerful dependence on
God and our parish south coast consultation reminded us of how much we value a
sense of God’s presence and think of our churches as sanctuaries where we are
able to refocus on our Christian journey.
In silence I remind myself of how ordinary I am and yet how amazing it is to be alive, to be
still, able to breathe and feel my heartbeat and place myself in the Presence
of the source of all wisdom, the Inward Light of Christ.
However, you
pray or meditate may those who surround you draw from your calmness, compassion,
and connectedness. So many I believe find consolation and peace when in the
company of people who are at peace in their own lives whatever else may be
happening for them.
In a world
of noise and where silence is often dead or frozen may your stillness and
silence be truly golden in blessing, in Christ who is in our midst, the
treasury of blessings and giver of life.
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