The role of silence in faith

[guillaumeb]

From the article:

Sitting in a Quaker meeting recently, it occurred to me that if Muhammad (peace be upon him) were alive today he would feel very comfortable worshipping with these Christian friends. He was, after all, a man who had a daily practice of meditating in silence, and this is exactly what occurs in a Quaker meeting....

The kind of meditation practiced by Muhammad, by the Sufis, and by the Quakers assumes that there is something within the human heart that connects us to our Divine Source. It is therefore worth sitting in receptive silence before the heart and possibly allowing it expression once a connection has ripened. Doing so allowed Muhammad to receive and communicate revelation. Revelation may be reserved for the prophets, but a heart relationship to the Divine is surely a birthright of all human beings.

To read more:

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/livingtradition/2019/01/hello-silence-my-old-friend/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Muslim&utm_content=49

[rzemanfl]

1. That's what I would like Evangelicals to do, STFU. n/t

[guillaumeb]

2. And meditate?

Difficult to really do, as I know. It is truly difficult to turn off the background noise in the mind and listen.

[rzemanfl]

3. As long as they shut up I don't care if they spend their time thinking

about the naked people they will see when they get raptured.

[guillaumeb]

5. Naked?

What will Mike Pence do? Could he pull down his white hood and cover his eyes?

[bobbieinok]

4. Interesting.The Catholic order that requires silence says a human must be silent to hear God

Have forgotten the order. I think it may have been the one Thomas Merton was a member of.

[guillaumeb]

6. I had a cousin who was a member of the Claretians.

Silence was generally observed except for special occasions.

[No Vested Interest]

7. Thomas Merton was a Trappist monk, at a monastery in Gethsemani, KY.

The formal name of the order may be Cistercians.

Some orders of nuns may also use silence in their contemplation, including the Carmelites and some Dominicans.

[Fortinbras Armstrong]

8. The formal name of the Trappists

Is Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance. The name "Trappist" comes from a French monastery called "La Trappe" where the order was founded in the 1660s. Similarly, the name "Cistercians" comes from the Latin name of the French city of Citeaux, where that order split off from the Benedictines in 1098.

[bobbieinok]

9. Thanks. I remember my shock that there was a monastery in KY!!

I still wonder about the cause of his death. IIFC he was vocal opponent of Vietnam War.

[violetpastille]

10. That was a beautiful article. I found myself nodding and saying "Yes! Exactly!"

"THIS is what our world needs now!"

Non-judgement. Acceptance. Attentiveness to beauty. The consciousness of how to give others the inner and outer space to find themselves.

An open-hearted Muslim has far more in common with an open-hearted Christian than with a Muslim whose heart is closed or whose approach to faith is rigid and dogmatic. And whether or not we believe Jesus was divine (and other doctrinal beliefs) are of less significance than whether or not we can live in the spirit of his teaching (in essence the same as Muhammad’s). Rumi understood this: despite being a devout Muslim, he never asked his Christian followers (or followers of other faiths) to convert to Islam.

"A heart relationship to the Divine is the birthright of all human beings."

[guillaumeb]

11. I am happy that you liked it.

And it also needs a recognition of the existence of the Divine. My view, shared by others, is that we all have a spark of the Creator. It is up to us to cultivate that spark.

I like to meditate in my garden.

[Christopher-81]

12. The "gift" of silence and loneliness

Henri Nouwen, in his 1972 book The Wounded Healer, focuses on both silence and loneliness as gifts insofar as they help us "look beyond the boundaries of our existence." It's only in the last couple of months that I have begun to discover Nouwen's work, and it's a pity that it took me this long! (But better late than never, I suppose...) At any rate, I wrote a book review, which is really more of a reflection, on The Wounded Healer, here:

http://christopheradam.ca/2019/02/09/book-review-the-wounded-healer-by-henri-nouwen/

[guillaumeb]

13. Welcome to DU, and this conversation.

My view is that external silence is an indication that one is working internally.

The Friends sit in silence unless a member feels the need to speak.