by Brian Holley
“Each one of us has an ever faithful companion-presence. Something that is always with us. Something that helps us live with inner integrity and depth, to see through the outer coverings of others and of the world to their purpose and core being, and to get over placing ourselves at the centre of everything.“
So Robert Sardello begins the first Chapter of ‘Silence: the Mystery of Wholeness’. This companion-presence is, of course, Silence. It never leaves us, Sardello says. We leave it by being caught up in the busyness and turmoil of our world. But if we stop for a moment and look within, it is always there, always available. We can learn to live in the liminal space between the virtual reality of our ego perceptions and the true reality of the eternal.
Silence dwells in the body’s centre, the heart. It is the ultimate source of that which enables the coherence of life energy, in all its forms. Some say, with good reason, that incoherence is the cause of most diseases of body and mind. The practice of silence, in whatever form we may choose, brings coherence; that is, it enables the ways that energy flows through us to do so efficiently and without disruption, especially the disruption of our own ego-thoughts. The heart, being both a physical and spiritual centre, is the organ and chakra that brings coherence to this flow.
Science brings us insights into the physical aspect of this phenomenon, though we may never fully understand all that is involved here. Scientists at the HeartMath Institute of California have discovered a way to bring the physical heart and brain into coherence by simply thinking. You can do this anywhere any time so it doesn’t matter whether you’re sitting or standing, though being seated in a quiet place is most effective. In case you haven’t come across this already, here’s how it works:
Focus your mind on your breath and breathe deeply into the solar plexus four or five times. This oxygenates the brain to increase attention and relaxes the body making it more receptive.
Now focus your attention on your heart for at least 15 seconds, while channelling your breathing into and through your heart.
Then bring to mind a loved one. Remember them with gratitude and love. Perhaps send them a blessing: ‘May all that you need be enabled within you and for you,’ for instance.
Many versions of this simple procedure can be found on the internet and you may want to experiment to find the one that works best for you. There is empirical evidence to show that this practice brings the two channels of communication between the heart and the brain, the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems, into coherence. The sympathetic nervous system connects the heart with the brain’s defence centre and the parasympathetic to the brain’s comfort centre. In our interactions with people and things during our waking hours the sympathetic can become over-active putting an excessive load on the heart as it responds to alarm signals from the brain. The natural silence of the heart is easily drowned out by the bustle and noise of our emotional fire engines and ambulances as well as the clamour for attention of the commercial world. Such over-stimulation of our defence system is likely to be the greatest cause of heart disease.
The problem with we humans is that our defence system is handled by the most primitive part of the brain, which is also the fastest part. Everything is dealt with by this ‘Reptilian and Old Mammalian’ brain instantly and before it gets processed by the neo-cortex or new mammalian brain. But our lower brain has no idea where a signal is coming from. It can’t distinguish between signals from the five senses (the smell of fire or the sight of a predator), an imaginary event or something remembered from the past. It only has one response to all these and that is to activate the body ready to fight or flee. In a real situation, this is fine, because all that matters to the reptilian brain is physical survival. But most of our knee jerk responses are to situations where the ego is threatened by disagreement with someone. Most usually fight or flight is inappropriate so our bodies cannot use physical action to get rid of the extra chemicals and hormones discharged into the blood stream. The best we can manage is storming out of the room and slamming the door. The substances meant to save us then begin to poison us and this scenario is being repeated in homes and places of work hour by hour.
In reptiles and all animals once the threat is gone their parasympathetic system takes over and they continue grazing or dozing. But we humans have the ability to remember the event and churn it over in our minds. Not only that, but we have the ability to imagine events that haven’t happened such as making fools of ourselves in front of an audience, having a car accident, even imagining someone dear to us lying injured somewhere because they’re 20 minutes late getting home. When this stuff enters our minds it automatically triggers our defence systems increasing our heart rate and blood pressure and feeding hormones into our blood stream ready for physical action. So does watching action movies on TV night after night. The regular practice of silence can mitigate the effects of these natural responses.
Silence is a place of healing. Its resources are infinite and eternal. When we enter silence without an agenda, all our needs, physical, mental and spiritual, are attended to. We don’t need to do anything or ask anything. The simple act of finding a quiet, uncluttered place to sit, becoming aware of silence around us, then aware of the silence within us and allowing ourselves to become one with silence brings wholeness.
Often we think of healing arising from some curative practice, whether medicinal or religious. But the purpose of ‘God’ is surely wholeness. Silence is a manifestation of wholeness. Out of it arises all that we need. Healing may arise from other sources but it arises most naturally – and with no side-effects – from the wholeness of silence. Certainly our receptivity to healing is considerably helped when we are brought into wholeness by practising silence.
It is observable that there are long-term effects that manifest in those who regularly practice silence, through meditation, prayer, contemplation and also in singing and dancing (I think of my Sufi friends here). One of the greatest descriptions of the effects of silence is found in a letter of 1658 by George Fox to Lady Claypole (Cromwell’s daughter):
‘Be still and cool in thy own mind and spirit from thy own thoughts, and then thou wilt feel the principle of God to turn thy mind to the Lord God, whereby thou wilt receive his strength and power from whence life comes, to allay all tempests, against blusterings and storms. That is it which moulds up into patience, into innocency, into soberness, into stillness, into stayedness, into quietness, up to God, with his power.’
What happens in those whose practices bring silence into their lives is that the ego-self is disempowered. It no longer so easily triggers the body’s defence system or clamours for the good feelings of the comfort system. The sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems are brought into coherence. This frees the soul to manifest peace, love and joy. Such people do not need to preach the Gospel, they are the Gospel, they are the way, the truth and the life. Their very presence entrains the hearts of others into coherence. They are the blessed peacemakers.
I sum up with some beautiful poetic prose from Cheryl Sanders-Sardello in Robert Sardello’s ‘Silence: the mystery of wholeness,’ a book that I highly recommend:
“THE ENORMITY OF LIFE’S tasks weigh and press on the day…they demand and insist on a constancy of attention that is relentless. Ah…but we are fortunate to have night’s solace – in the silence that is created by the dark. Night…that melancholy time, when the stars remind us of the silence of God. Here we can remember the future, and lean into the unknown, setting aside the oppressive weight of our carefully constructed version of who we think we are, and release that side of the pool. We can remember how to see in the dark…with our ears…perceiving the silence in its holy echoing and resonance, its calling forth a knowing that is from the soul.
This silence sends us on a different pilgrimage. It guards the heart’s fire and teaches us to speak from within, with a language that is imbued with the sacred. Words thus nurtured in this holy silence fly forth with the wings of joy, and return to lead us back to the silence from which they were born.”
See also ‘Why silence? Revisiting the foundations of Quaker worship’ by Brian Holley