Listening To The Silence...

"Listening to the silence" is not a common refrain, at least, not one that is heard very often deep in the "normal" chaos of 21st century life... but should that fact negate the value of a cultivated silence? Catherine Doherty, a Russian writer and mystic, who founded the Madonna House Apostolate and profoundly influenced Thomas Merton, wrote in her book Molchanie, The Silence of God, "Silence is the key to the immense Furnace of Love -- the heart of God". So, what should we make of this "silence"? Besides, who really wants to get burned?

Let's begin by looking at the question of a cultivated silence from a different angle. Let's look at it through the lens of young lovers (or passionate "old lovers" as well). What does it mean to be a passionate lover? Or better yet, how many are the ways in which lovers make love? A truthful answer to these questions is quite simple: passionate lovers never stop! 24 / 7 sex is not possible (though worth the failing effort), but there are an unlimited number of "variations" on the one essential theme of a conscious cultivation of "oneness": conversations, holding hands while walking anywhere, playing games, sneaking kisses in libraries... if one is awake and breathing, one can get seriously close to a 24 / 7 love-life... Isn't this hunger for "close encounters of the loving kind" with one's partner the single-minded intention of "young lovers"?

Or have you forgotten? Or worse, have you never had access to this incredible bliss? Sadly, there are no guarantees when one enters life as a human being: but, if one nevertheless is at least "potentially" awake, being kind, gentle, and interested in others will increase one's opportunities for positive relationships. But let's say that you've got things moving in "your direction". Let's say further, that you've read a few "spiritual" books: there on your coffee table is a book about the Dalai Lama, you've read a hundred pages of Deepak Chopra (although you can't find that book right now), and you just purchased Autobiography of a Yogi. This could be the start of something, right?

Well, yes, but there is more! What do lovers do? Lovers, or couples who yearn for intimate relations with the person of their desires, look for ways to further or deepen that relationship. She will seek more time with that person. He will seek moments of aloneness  with "that one". She will touch and kiss. In other words, lovers will consciously cultivate opportunities for intimate encounters. Anything is a possibility for lovers! The most human of dramas is the root of the hunger for the Divine Beloved... 

Like lovers, the person who yearns for an awakening to her divine possibilities will intentionally cultivate opportunities to engage with the Beloved. Human lovers lose all track of time in an embrace of deep kissing. And so it is when one listens to the silence... when one hungers for a near proximity to the Divine Beloved, he will put aside time, and open his heart to a contemplative gaze upon his Beloved... when one has awakened to the One Reality of Love as one's true identity, she will desire to live in the meaning of that awakening... The same (but different) is what it means to live "lover-to-lover", and "lover-loving-the Divine Beloved"... Living the ecstasy of loving is in every way and in every thing the difference-maker...  This is the gift and the lesson of listening to the silence...