| Millions of people around the world have just | | | | he quickly gained the reputation of a sage, which |
| celebrated the Spring Equinox. Far fewer realise | | | | meant that his solitary retreat quickly became an |
| that March 21st is also the Feast Day of St | | | | Hindu ashram, visited by disciples from all over the |
| Benedict, who might justifiably be regarded as the | | | | globe. (Somerset Maugham sat at his feet for a |
| founder of quietism and the spiritual retreat | | | | while, and used him as the model for the spiritual |
| movement. Benedict was born of a wealthy | | | | guru in his novel 'The Razor's Edge'.) Devotees |
| Italian family, and as a young man felt impelled to | | | | were struck by the powerful silence which |
| leave Rome to escape its materialistic values and | | | | radiated from his presence. He hoped that that by |
| dissolute lifestyle. His aim was similar to that of | | | | radiating this quietness and calm he could imbue |
| many modern city workers. He wanted to escape | | | | others the same inner strength. But most of |
| the metropolitan hurly burly and find solitude and | | | | them were desperate for verbal instruction. So he |
| peace by being in close communion with the world | | | | was eventually forced to put his fundamental |
| of nature. So for three years he lived in a cave | | | | message on paper. 'Throw your worries to the |
| on the lower slopes of Monte Cassino, a sacred | | | | wind,' he wrote, 'turn within and find peace.' |
| mountain eighty miles from Rome. The cave was | | | | This is a simple instruction, but one which is |
| isolated and ideal for his purpose, for it offered | | | | difficult to follow in the modern world which has |
| panoramic views over a lake which lay just fifty | | | | an active dislike of silence. The moment there's a |
| feet below. At the mountain's summit stood a | | | | gap in the conversation we feel obliged to fill it |
| pagan temple dedicated to the god Apollo. One of | | | | with senseless babble. One study of more than |
| Benedict's first acts was to destroy the altar and | | | | eighty hours conversation revealed that a tenth |
| sculptured image of the god. Then he converted | | | | of our speech is made up of meaningless, filler |
| the building into the first Benedictine monastery, | | | | words like 'um', er' and 'you know'. When we're |
| where he spent the remainder of his life. | | | | emotionally disturbed, we don't turn to the oracle |
| Nowadays it's customary to divide monks into | | | | within but seek the advice of counsellors and |
| two categories, the 'cenobites' who live in | | | | agony aunts. The eminent British psychoanalyst |
| communities, and the 'eremites' or hermits who | | | | Anthony Storr, in his book 'Feet of Clay', tells of a |
| dwell in isolation. This distinction is somewhat | | | | time when he was treating a woman who lay on |
| arbitrary, for the members of every monastic | | | | his couch for fifty minutes without saying a single |
| order are expected to spend time in silence and | | | | word. 'Partly out of curiosity, partly out of a |
| solitary meditation. That's the very meaning of | | | | sense that something important was taking place, |
| the word monk, which is derived from the Greek | | | | I said nothing. The atmosphere was peaceful and |
| 'monos' meaning 'alone'. Whether we're agnostics, | | | | happy. At the end of the session, she said that |
| humanists or members of an established religious | | | | this had been the best of all our meetings so far.' |
| order, we all have a biological need for times of | | | | There are many times when silence can be far |
| solitude and quiet reflection. This is reflected in the | | | | more eloquent than words, and far more difficult |
| simple set of rules which Benedict laid down for | | | | to refute than logical argument. One must agree |
| his monks. Anyone who observes the Benedictine | | | | with Walter Bagehot, the nineteenth century |
| Order is instructed to lead an uncomplicated life | | | | British economist, who said. 'An inability to stay |
| style, in which purposeful work is regarded as a | | | | quiet is one of the most conspicuous failings of |
| valuable activity in its own right. They're expected | | | | mankind.' There are times when we want to |
| to follow a vegetarian diet, accompanied by wine, | | | | pursue our own thoughts rather than chatter |
| with meat added if necessary during spells of | | | | inanely with cab drivers and hair dressers. Maybe |
| illness. But the central points of every day are | | | | we should take a bold stand, like Enoch Powell the |
| regular periods of solitude and silence, including | | | | British parliamentarian who when asked by his |
| seven times of prayer and several interludes of | | | | barber how he would like his hair cut replied: 'In |
| reflective reading. | | | | silence.' No one should speak unless they can |
| Moving forward nearly two thousand years we | | | | enhance the silence, for it's only when we're quiet |
| can follow the career of another young man, | | | | that we can hear the whispers of the primeval life |
| known today as Sri Ramana Maharishi, who was | | | | force. That was the fervent belief of Mother |
| born of an upper class Brahmin family in India. He | | | | Theresa who said: 'We need to find God, and he |
| too had a Road to Damascus experience when | | | | cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is |
| he was sixteen, and felt inspired to retire to a | | | | the friend of silence. |
| cave in the sacred mountain of Arunachala. Here | | | | |