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What is the Sound of Silence in your faith?

B

Brok Born

New Member
I believe the silence is more of a feeling or a brooding sentiment that is resting upon the hosts of Heaven as they watch the atrocities unfolding. I do not believe that any heavenly communication will be interupted. This is meant for us to understand how the hosts of Heaven must feel when Satan's Hosts are raging in the earth.

Best Regards.
Brok Born
 
idea

idea

Question Everything
Be still, and know that I am God Psalms 46:10

silent contemplation during the passing of the sacrament is how we start all our meetings. Silence is golden - it's so important to listen.

The thing that I love about silence, is that it is always there. Even when there are fireworks/TV/lightning/yelling - some things try to cover it up, but silence is still there under it all. I teach my children that they can learn how to reach below the noise, and find the peaceful silence under it all no matter where they are or what they are doing.


And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the LORD. And, behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the LORD; but the LORD was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the LORD was not in the earthquake:
And after the earthquake a fire; but the LORD was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice.1 Kings 19:11 - 12

not within the strong wind, not within the earthquake, not within the fire - God exists within stillness, within silence.
 
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Trey of Diamonds

Trey of Diamonds

Well-Known Member
And the people bowed and prayed
To the neon god they made
And the sign flashed out its warning
In the words that it was forming
And the sign said, "The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls
And tenement halls"
And whispered in the sounds of silence

I think that says it pretty well, at least sometimes. Othertimes it means something else to me. My religion kind of changes with my mood. :p
 
S

swamplizard

Human
Greetings,

Surrendering the consciousness to the self, utilizing the mind instead of being dominated by it, voiding the concepts for the knowing of substance. Being.

boggy best,
swampy
 
W

WanderLust

Inquisitive One
Silence is the beginning and the end, the greatest trick the universe ever played. Silence comes only before life and after death, the only true peace that exists. Life is chaos, noise. Death brings nonexistence, peace, silence. I have nothing I can call "faith" but this is the closest thing.
 
Trey of Diamonds

Trey of Diamonds

Well-Known Member
How often is quite confused with silence. True silence, as in the absence of all sound, is as strange and frightening as total darkness. Both are difficult to experience outside of a sensory deprivation chamber.
 
Riverwolf

Riverwolf

Amateur Rambler / Proud Ergi
Premium Member
At least one Sage I've read teaches, when OM is chanted, focus on the silence afterwards, not the sound itself. Having done this myself, I'd say that's the sound of silence.
 
S

Straw Dog

Well-Known Member
idea said:
Be still, and know that I am God Psalms 46:10

silent contemplation during the passing of the sacrament is how we start all our meetings. Silence is golden - it's so important to listen.

The thing that I love about silence, is that it is always there. Even when there are fireworks/TV/lightning/yelling - some things try to cover it up, but silence is still there under it all. I teach my children that they can learn how to reach below the noise, and find the peaceful silence under it all no matter where they are or what they are doing.


And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the LORD. And, behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the LORD; but the LORD was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the LORD was not in the earthquake:
And after the earthquake a fire; but the LORD was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice.1 Kings 19:11 - 12

not within the strong wind, not within the earthquake, not within the fire - God exists within stillness, within silence.
Click to expand...


Thanks for the input. I agree that, if there is a God, then people should try not talking so much about deity but rather listening more often to what sound can be heard within the silence of existence.
 
S

Straw Dog

Well-Known Member
dyanaprajna2011 said:
That's how the Quakers worship. They sit in silence. Kind of like meditation.
Click to expand...

I can definitely dig the style of the Quakers. I've attended a few meetings, and I may start attending regularly. It's much closer driving to than the nearest Zen center and they do have much in common when it comes to experiential practice, although they differ in their subsequent interpretations. It's not that there's a strict difference in mentality, although I did notice some Quakers at odds with the non-theists in their own community. However, it did seem like some of the older members didn't believe the difference between the strict theists and the strict atheists were as severe as semantics would dictate. The Quakers are probably my favorite "Christian" denomination, although I don't think other Christians are wholly separated from the direct experience of divine reality either. Language and concepts can never really open the door completely to reality. It always comes down to direct experience.
 
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dyanaprajna2011

dyanaprajna2011

Dharmapala
Straw Dog said:
I can definitely dig the style of the Quakers. I've attended a few meetings, and I may start attending regularly. It's much closer driving to than the nearest Zen center and they do have much in common when it comes to experiential practice, although they differ in their subsequent interpretations. It's not that there's a strict difference in mentality, although I did notice some Quakers at odds with the non-theists in their own community. However, it did seem like some of the older members didn't believe the difference between the strict theists and the strict atheists were as severe as semantics would dictate. The Quakers are probably my favorite "Christian" denomination, although I don't think other Christians are wholly separated from the direct experience of divine reality either. Language and concepts can never really open the door completely to reality. It always comes down to direct experience.
Click to expand...

About 4 years ago, one of my now ex-wife's friends got me a book on Quakerism. At the time I was a conservative Christian, so I didn't pay much attention to it. About a year ago, when I converted to Buddhism, I picked up that book, read it, and was astounded at how similar in practice and understanding the Quakers and Zen were. It was almost as if Quakerism was Zen wrapped in Christian terminology. And there is an atheist movement within Quakerism.
 
Levite

Levite

Higher and Higher
Straw Dog said:
Does silence hold any value in your particular faith? If so, what?

Can you hear any truth by not listening to the spoken?

Can you read the one true word without using words?

Can you apprehend the unknown by emptying your mind of the known?
Click to expand...

We read in the 18th chapter of the first Book of Kings that Elijah the Prophet, in the middle of a theophanic revalation, was confronted by tempest, earthquake, and fire, and knew that God was to be found in none of them. And when, afterward, he heard kol d'mamah dakah ("a still, fine voice") he prostrated himself, knowing that he heard the voice of God.

Mainstream Judaism usually embraces the spoken, the sung, the written more often than the silence. But we have our moments for silence, and in Kabbalistic circles, many meditations are silent, and the mind is cleared as the individual seeks to reach toward Ein Sof, the Endless, the most transcendant and ineffable core of God.
 
S

Straw Dog

Well-Known Member
Levite said:
We read in the 18th chapter of the first Book of Kings that Elijah the Prophet, in the middle of a theophanic revalation, was confronted by tempest, earthquake, and fire, and knew that God was to be found in none of them. And when, afterward, he heard kol d'mamah dakah ("a still, fine voice") he prostrated himself, knowing that he heard the voice of God.

Mainstream Judaism usually embraces the spoken, the sung, the written more often than the silence. But we have our moments for silence, and in Kabbalistic circles, many meditations are silent, and the mind is cleared as the individual seeks to reach toward Ein Sof, the Endless, the most transcendant and ineffable core of God.
Click to expand...

Interesting story. I'm not very familiar with the Book of Kings or Elijah the Prophet, but I have looked into Kabbalah before. It seems all religious traditions have their own mystical currents of practice. They seem to all describe similar experiences and yet can differ considerably in their subsequent interpretations of them.
 
T

theirreverentconcubine

Member
What is the sound of silence? Temporal geometry over identity.

It is the way of Heaven not to strive, and yet it skillfully overcomes; not to speak, and yet it is skillful in obtaining a reply; does not call, and yet men come to it of themselves. Its demonstrations are quiet, and yet its plans are skillful and effective.

The meshes of the net of Heaven are large; far apart, but letting nothing escape.

73, tao te ching

Do you see what I see? Machination. Wheels upon wheels, when minds once looked to the whirling stars and their slow dance across the sky, across the ages. With tao, one gets clarity; with other stuff, one gets instruction.
 
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