The Work of Silence - An Act of Rebellion

 

This afternoon I started reading Maggie Ross's 'Silence: A User's Guide - Volume One.' As I prepared for this period of study leave, this was the first book I bought. I've been wanting to read it for some time.

I have managed to read the introduction and chapter one. It's not an easy read and definitely a work of philosophical theology. I should have realised this when Rowan Williams writes the forward and Maggie Ross counts him as a personal friend and the custodian of her vows as an Anglican Solitary.

All of that said, I persevered, but it took some time to settle into her use of language and wide-ranging references.
At the heart of those opening pages were some striking ideas:

•  She doesn't refer to the practice of silence or the experience of it as that signifies something that one can dip into on the surface. She writes about 'the work of silence' implying that it takes some effort and perseverance to experience; but also that there is a purpose to silence; something that silence does in us and to us.
• She talks about silence as 'putting on the mind of Christ'. This isn't I suspect about divine providence or guidance, but about discerning a deep wisdom.
• She also takes no delight in contemporary culture and writes about it with some real distaste. A far as she is concerned it sells reality short and robs us of real meaning and deep interaction with each other. Therefore silence, in a visually and noisy vacuous culture, is an act of rebellion in and against a noisy world.

 Hmmm... silence as a radical act you say? That stirs something within me. Or perhaps I should say, stills something in me.

She uses the phrase 'the work of silence' a lot in the opening pages and I am pretty clear that defining it is key to the rest of the book and her premise. She writes

"... The work of silence is to re-establish the flow between self-conciousness which disriminates, dominates, and disorinetates our lives, and the clarity and wisdom of the deep mind which is not directly accessible but whose activities we can influence..."

I needed to unpick this definition:

• Self-conciousness - this is a preoccupation with the way one looks or acts; a heightened sense of awareness of oneself. It's related to, but the flip side of self-awareness. It has a hint of coyness to it too. Ross uses it to refer to the left side of the mind which is surface-focussed, dualistic and limited in focus.
• Discriminate - to recognise, identify or highlight a distinction. It is a word that largely has negative connotations these days.
• Dominate - to have power or influence over. This looms with a weaponised personal power and force of will.
• Distort - to pull, twist or contort our of shape.
• Deep Mind - it's very interesting that Google runs a UK based AI programme of the same name. For Ross, this is the right side of the mind which is ethical, processes complex language, insights and experiences, does holistic work.

In between there is is flow, a liminality. The liminal is a point of becoming. It is where boundaries are crossed. It is a place of transaction. It is a place where the Divine or transcendent is encountered.

For Ross therefore, the work of silence is opening self-conciousness to depth; to a breadth of thought; to openness; to powerlessness and freedom to be onneself; is about a balance in the mind. It is about wisdom. It is about renewal and wholeness.

When liminality occurs in silence, the mind allows the brain in some way to have experience of itself.

This hints at what I suspected, even in a theologically philosphical way, silence and health of the mind are intriniscly connected.