Silence is the Beginning of Wisdom

I’ve spent the last few weeks laid up mostly in hospital, but with some time at home, due to the unexpected and serious consequences of a broken rib. Perhaps surprisingly, that’s not what I want to talk about this time. This time, I want to examine silence.

Solomon ben Judah, the 11th century poet and philosopher, is credited with the assertion that “The beginning of wisdom is silence”. He then went on to to say that “The second step is listening”.

This came to mind recently. Having been life-threatening ill, the one thing that I desperately need in hospital was peace and quiet. It’s ironic therefore, that hospitals are the one place that are virtually never quiet. That’s not a criticism of hospitals; People don’t get ill to order, and their needs are many and various, often requiring them to discuss things with their team, sometimes prompting them to cry out in their pain and misery. All that I am saying is that it reminded me of the value, the importance of silence, as a tool by which we can heal, as a place where, if we are lucky, we may find peace, and as a gateway to ourselves.

So often, when we speak about listening to ourselves, we talk about the “internal dialogue” - when in fact what we mean is the “internal monologue”. We tell ourselves constantly what we should feel, what we should think, how we should be, in stead of listening to our own expressions of who and what we are.

This becomes even more important when I’m training mediums. The whole beginning of learning to be a medium, even more true in trance mediumship, is to calm the inner voice, in this case, to listen to the voices of others.

From our own internal voices, so we can begin to learn compassion for ourselves - to forgive ourselves for not being all the things we tell ourselves that we should be, simply accepting the beauty of who we are, and the courage it has taken to get ourselves here.

And from listening to the quiet voices of Spirit, so we can begin to work with Spirit to enhance both our own lives and the lives of others.

Don’t be afraid of silence. Rather, revel in it. Enjoy its healing properties, and take heart. You can learn a lot from listening in silence.

Alexander Dalgleish-Weaver