Being Still and Silent on the Inside
Tuesday of the Third Week of Lent – March 10, 2015
Abba Poemen: “You may seem to be silent, but if your heart is condemning others, you are babbling ceaselessly. But there are may be another who talks from morning till night and yet is truly silent: that is, he says nothing that is not profitable.”
[Benedicta Ward, SLG, The Sayings of the Desert Fathers, p. 171]
Spiritual practices are always more concerned with shaping our interior, rather than simply improving or cleaning up our outer appearance.
The spiritual practice of silence is more about our inner state than the noise around us or the words we speak. That is, the thoughts that rumble around in our minds are the source of most of our words. Our minds chase after distractions. They create elaborate commentaries to help make sense of things that happen to us in the world.
Our interior life needs transformation. Our words will reflect that interior change.
To put it another way, our doing and our speaking (external manifestations) always emerge from our being (our interior reality).
As Abba Poemen says, we can be outwardly silent, but inwardly babbling on. Or we can be speaking, yet have profound impact if our words arise from a silent center.
Jesus has something to say about this, as well:
“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.
“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.” (Matt. 23:25 – 28)
Abba Poemen: “You may seem to be silent, but if your heart is condemning others, you are babbling ceaselessly. But there are may be another who talks from morning till night and yet is truly silent: that is, he says nothing that is not profitable.”
[Benedicta Ward, SLG, The Sayings of the Desert Fathers, p. 171]
Spiritual practices are always more concerned with shaping our interior, rather than simply improving or cleaning up our outer appearance.
The spiritual practice of silence is more about our inner state than the noise around us or the words we speak. That is, the thoughts that rumble around in our minds are the source of most of our words. Our minds chase after distractions. They create elaborate commentaries to help make sense of things that happen to us in the world.
Our interior life needs transformation. Our words will reflect that interior change.
To put it another way, our doing and our speaking (external manifestations) always emerge from our being (our interior reality).
As Abba Poemen says, we can be outwardly silent, but inwardly babbling on. Or we can be speaking, yet have profound impact if our words arise from a silent center.
Jesus has something to say about this, as well:
“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.
“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.” (Matt. 23:25 – 28)
Comments
Post a Comment