Hearing Silence

A recent New York Times article reflected on the significance of a scientific paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences entitled “The Perception of Silence.” According to the study researchers discovered that people hear silences in the same way that they hear sounds.

The scientists described seven experiments of “event-based auditory illusions.” They say, “In all cases, silences elicited temporal distortions perfectly analogous to their sound-based counterparts, suggesting that auditory processing treats moments of silence the way it treats sound. Silence is truly perceived, not merely inferred.”

The full meaning of this is beyond my limited scientific understanding, but the results are confirmed in my experience. There truly is a “sound of silence,” as Simon and Garfunkel put it. In the Times article one of the authors, Rui Zhe Goh of Johns Hopkins, explains, “Silence is the experience of time passing.” He explains this to mean that silence is “an auditory experience of pure time.”

I often listen to silence. It is my everyday spiritual practice. I do not sit on the floor in the lotus position, but throughout the day I pause to listen to silence. I understand silence as the voice of God. God speaks in the open spaces of life – both physical and auditory. These spaces are everywhere and everywhen. They are the openings between what we call “things.” They are the pauses between sounds. That spaciousness and quietude is experienced as divine.

As I write this post I am sitting on my back porch. The birds are singing a psalm of thanksgiving for the meal that my wife put out for them a few minutes ago. Each species is a different instrument in a symphony more beautiful than any human music.  There are other sounds as well. Cicadas are singing an ode to the sun. Insects buzz outside the screen and occasionally bang against it. Someone is cutting a lawn in the distance. Once in a while a vehicle drives by. I also hear my granddaughter giggling as she watches something on her tablet in the living room. 

In the midst of and under all these sounds is ever-present silence. Over time it has become easier for me to focus on the silence instead of the noises. I notice that all noises arise from and recede back into silence. Silence is the mother of sound. There is more silence than noise. Whereas the noises are all different, the silence is the same.

I understand this Silence to be the Word of God. Before there was the Song of Creation, there was the Sound of Silence. The gospel calls it the Word. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” This Eternal Word we know as Silence resonates with the silence at the core of my being. Silence outside and silence inside is one Silence. I am that silence.

This Silence is omnipresent. It is all the proof I need for God. Not the noisy “old man in the sky” who plays the role of cosmic dictator. There is God beyond this anthropomorphic God. True God is Love. God is here now always. Some people hear God only through words of scripture, creeds and preachers. I hear God best through silence.