How Silence Leads Us to Awe - 猫咪社区! Magazine Solutions Journalism

A Buddhist lama and an ex-priest discuss the benefits of turning off the noise in our daily lives.

5 MIN READ

Sep 12, 2018

The Reverend Matthew Fox is a former Dominican priest in the Catholic Church. In 1993, he was expelled by the Vatican for espousing feminism and other progressive ideas in his Institute for Creation Spirituality. Lama Tsomo is an American-born secular Jew who first made a career as a psychotherapist. In her 40s, she embraced Buddhism, and began study at home and abroad. She was ordained a lama in the Namchak lineage in 2005.

Fox and Tsomo鈥檚 new book, The Lotus & the Rose, features a series of conversations in which the friends explore the essential principles shared by Buddhism and Christianity, as well as the differences that distinguish them.

Matthew Fox: I think all creativity comes out of an encounter with silence. And when you think about what is an experience of awe, for example, it shuts you up.

There鈥檚 a great story of Job. Job had all these troubles, you know. He鈥檚 arguing with everybody and, then finally, God reveals himself to Job. And God says, 鈥淲ere you there when I formed the world? Were you there when the lion was born?鈥� and so forth. And then it says that Job put his hand over his mouth and he shut up. He learned some silence. But with hand over your mouth is a sense of awe. I think all awe renders us silent, and therefore all experiences of awe are this quick trip back to no sound, no word, to nothingness.

And that鈥檚 why they鈥檙e so valuable, and we have to build our lives, our culture, our education, our spiritual lives, on those profound experiences that take us beyond. For one thing, if you look at it physiologically, it鈥檚 beyond our left brain. It鈥檚 our left brain that wants to talk. The right brain is happy to be silent or make music or try another language. That takes you closer to carrying on the journey of awe. I like to see art as humanity鈥檚 capacity to increase awe in the universe. So, everything we do that鈥檚 beautiful brings more awe, and therefore more silence.

Lama Tsomo: And purifies vision.

Matt: Purifies vision. And purifies the visionary鈥攖hat is, the artist gets purified in the work.

Tsomo: There鈥檚 a corollary to the Buddha: The students asked him to describe pure truth, what he saw. And he fell silent. So it鈥檚 a famous moment in Buddhism, as well. Nevertheless, maybe we can sneak a peek at it by saying what it鈥檚 not. Because one thing it鈥檚 not is a vacuum, an unknowing vacuum. There鈥檚 a cognizance about it. There鈥檚 awareness about it.

Matt: John of the Cross calls it silent music.

Tsomo: Actually, in music, between the notes there鈥檚 silence. You can鈥檛 have music without silence.

Matt: It鈥檚 allowing the between the notes into us. Whereas our culture, especially now, is so busy with all notes, and no silence.

Tsomo: Yeah, that鈥檚 right. I talked with this Tibetan doctor, about space being the fifth element; they have the four elements, the fifth being space. And I asked, 鈥淪o how does that work on a psychological level?鈥� And he said, 鈥淚f there鈥檚 no space between thoughts, that is the definition of insanity.鈥� And haven鈥檛 we been coming closer and closer to that? 鈥� Now that we count in nanoseconds, between thought events, I think we鈥檙e approaching that.

Matt: So honoring space, honoring emptiness, and, of course, in our own lives, finding room and space, creating solitude鈥攅ven if it means structuring time during the day, or a corner of our room, or a room in the house, or a walk in the woods, whatever it takes. I think a lot of men who are not rewarded for displaying their contemplative side, cover it up by going fishing and calling it, 鈥淥h, we鈥檙e going fishing.鈥� Or going hunting in the woods. I mean, 95 percent of a hunting trip or a fishing trip is doing nothing. [Laughs] Waiting.

That鈥檚 something the masculine energy of our culture not only does not reward, it tends to ridicule. A lot of what we call men鈥檚 sport is really a subtle quest for meditation, and for honoring this need we have for space. And even a lot of conflict between men and women, husbands and wives, is over silence. I think as a gender, women tend to be more extroverted鈥攖hat is, to talk their issues out in circles of other women, for example, and then also at home, with their husbands. Whereas many men are more introverted by nature, and we have to process it silently. So there鈥檚 often this conflict between talking out issues, and kind of processing them.

Tsomo: Processing them verbally versus inside?

Matt: Yes, exactly. And men have no one to process them with in a way unless they have a very special relationship with women or other men in their lives. But our culture, Western culture, leaves us with very few practices to honor this intrinsic, natural need we have for silence and honoring the nothingness and the emptiness. So I think this is one more place where Buddhist practices can really bring some balance back to Western culture.

Tsomo: You spoke of extrovert and introvert, regarding men and women, and I would have to say that as far as processing verbally, that may be the case, but then there are other ways in which women tend toward introverted and focused.

Matt: And other ways men tend to extrovert themselves: 鈥淗ey, let鈥檚 make a war! How 鈥檅out a good war?鈥�

Tsomo: Or by accomplishing things in the world. A woman can accomplish quite a bit just by gestating a baby, creating milk for them, for example. I鈥檓 just taking the biological differences. And men鈥檚 work is more extroverted in that regard. And men do often take their self-worth from their outer career, as opposed to who they are.

Matt: And men who have chosen a more artistic profession entertain their powers of silence and inner solitude, artists who have their own studio out of the house, the back room or something. And writers demand their silence, and so forth.

So I think many men do come to this, but it鈥檚 more in terms of their vocation, if you will, their work, than necessarily seeing it as spiritual practice, or religion, or anything like that.

Excerpt from The Lotus & the Rose by Reverend Matthew Fox and Lama Tsomo, published by permission of the authors and Namchak Publishing Company LLC. Copyright 2018, Lotus & Rose LLC. 猫咪社区! Media receives philanthropic support from Lama Tsomo through her foundation.

Correction: November 1, 2018

A previous version said Lama Tsomo embraced Tibetan Buddhism as a young person. In fact, she first made a career as a psychotherapist.