Silence is not an absence of noise (though that sort of silence helps) but a limitless interior space…. Silence is our natural state. Lack of silence erodes our humanity… Through intention we can teach our selves to default to silence; meditation is only a first and very minor step. — Maggie Ross
Where do spiritual experiences happen? One could point to places like Thomas Merton Square in Louisville Kentucky, where Merton had his famous experience of falling love with all people; or the the shrine of Julian of Norwich in England, which is probably not the location where she had her visions, but clearly was the place where she prayed about them, engaged in inner dialogue with Christ about them, and eventually wrote them down. From the Bodhi Tree to Mount Sinai to the Road to Damascus, there are storied places around the world where saints, mystics, and great spiritual leaders encountered the mystery, experienced the divine, and received life-changing wisdom, insights, and teachings.
But as storied as all those great “mystical locations” might be, one could also say that there really is only one place where mystical experiences occur: and that is within the human body.
Whether we focus on the mind — the seat of thought and the center of awareness — or the heart — seat of the emotions and the gateway to intuition — or the belly, where our gut offers us the deepest and most primal forms of intuitive knowing, it’s clear that we encounter the mystery, wherever we are, in the sacred place of our own skin. Even when figures like St. Paul or the Prophet Mohammed speak of being caught up into heaven, it’s reasonable to speculate that no matter what they experienced in their awareness, it took place within the holy of holies that is the human body.
So when the English solitary contemplative Maggie Ross describes silence as a “limitless interior space” she is reminding us that within the tiny confines of our tiny little skulls and hearts we have access to the fullness of eternity and infinity. Ecclesiastes reminds us that eternity has been placed in our hearts (Eccles. 3:11), and by the sheer power of the imagination we can see that our minds have access to limitlessness as well. And silence is the doorway to this interior vastness that makes it possible for the Holy Spirit to reside within us. Only in the eternal infinity of the silence between our thoughts and heartbeats are we able to access the presence of the One who created and sustains all things. Thank heaven this silence is always accessible within us, no matter how much we may cover it over with the frenzy of our distracted hearts and minds. Take a breath, and slow down: the silence is always available.
Quotation source: Maggie Ross, Writing the Icon of the Heart, Introduction (Kindle Edition).