Encountering Silence

Continuing the conversation that began with Episodes 1 and 2, we now turn to the question of how our relationship to silence can evolve over time.

We take a closer look at how encountering silence has nurtured our faith in God — and how monasteries, churches, museums, the wilderness, and even a documentary film has played a role in our lives as each of us has "pursued" silence (or, perhaps we should say, how silence has pursued us).

We explore how silence has been a teacher to each of us, teaching us the ways of silence, teaching us to simply "let silence be" and approach it in a spirit of humility and openness. We discuss the limitations of academic scholarship (at least in terms of relating to silence), the challenge of moving beyond dualisting thinking when relating to silence, and how essential art and poetry have been to us when it comes to our evolving relationship with silence — and our shared recognition that there is a deep intimacy between silence and beauty. We also look at silence as the center around which aesthetics, theology, and liturgy all revolve — each points back to the silence, which in turn "hosts" each of these ways of human knowing and expression.

Silence for me has always been wrapped up with the question of the Divine. — Kevin Johnson

It's so interesting to engage with a material that is not a material. It's like clothing a bodiless body. you can't do it, but we're forever trying. That's why this keeps constantly pointing me back to God because it's another aspect of my life that certainty always fails me. It's in the unknowing that I know. It's in my extreme amount of doubt that my faith is. It's the tension pieces, the paradox pieces. — Cassidy Hall

Some of the resources and authors we mention in this episode:

Patrick Shen (director), In Pursuit of Silence (Documentary Film)

Tilden Edwards, Embracing the Call to Spiritual Depth

Gerald G. May, Will and Spirit: A Contemplative Psychology

Martin Laird, Into the Silent Land: A Guide to the Christian Practice of Contemplation

Elias Marechal, Tears of An Innocent God: Conversations on Silence, Kindness and Prayer

Alex Lu, Soundtrack for In Pursuit of Silence

Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters of Rainer Maria Rilke, 1892-1910

Hans Urs Von Balthazar, The Glory of the Lord: A Theological Aesthetics

Karl Rahner, Encounters with Silence

Bernard McGinn, ed., The Essential Writings of Christian Mysticism

Evagrius Ponticus, The Praktikos & Chapters on Prayer

Christian Bobin, The Eighth Day: Selected Writings

Carl quotes Acts 17:28: "In Him we live and move and have our being" — which comes from a sermon of Saint Paul, who in turn is quoting the pagan poet Epimenides.

The words are printed on the page just as the space between the ink is the page. It's all the page. There is a real presence of silence in the most ear-splitting noise. — Carl McColman

Kevin Johnson is a university professor, writer, speaker, and retreat leader based in Connecticut.

Cassidy Hall is a writer, photographer, and filmmaker based in Los Angeles.

Carl McColman is an author, catechist, and retreat leader based in Atlanta.

Episode 4: Encountering Silence As Adults

Hosted by: Carl McColman

With: Cassidy Hall and Kevin Johnson

Date Recorded: October 23, 2017

Carl, Cassidy & Kevin consider how our relationship to silence can evolve over time.

The Holiday Season can be joyful and/or stressful, which means this is a time when silence remains as important as ever.  Join us for this special episode where Cassidy, Kevin and Carl talk about how we nurture a contemplative dimension to our holiday experience, without getting moralistic or legalistic about silence, but also retaining a sense of just how vital silence is to us at this time of the year.

In this episode, we explore how silence is devalued in our culture (and why we need to resist that cultural prejudice), the relationship between silence and intentionality, how "letting go" is a portal into silence, the danger of "the materialism of information," how the spiritual concept of incarnation takes us outside of our comfort zone, how the body is our best friend for surviving the holidays, and much more.

When we name silence, we lose it... As soon as we touch the word urgency to the lips of silence, we lose a sincere intimacy. So how do we maintain silence as urgent and important in our lives without making it legalistic, or precisely what it isn't? — Cassidy Hall

Some of the resources and authors we mention in this episode:

Marvin C. Shaw, The Paradox of Intention

Thomas Merton, Literary Essays

Ernest Wood, A Zen Dictionary

Lao-Tzu, Tao Te Ching

Caryll Houselander, The Reed of God

Pico Iyer, The Art of Stillness

Gerald May, Will and Spirit: A Contemplative Psychology

Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back

Thomas Keating, Open Mind, Open Heart: The Contemplative Dimension of the Gospel

Meister Eckhart, The Complete Mystical Works

The Zen Proverb ("Quit Trying; Quit Trying Not to Try; Quit Quitting") shows up in:

Carl McColman, Answering the Contemplative Call

And one more book that this episode makes us think of:

David Bentley Hart, The Experience of God: Being, Consciousness, Bliss

You actually have to stop trying... if you attempt to be silent, if you make it an urgent goal, well then you never get there, silence never actually comes, there has to be kind of a letting go. — Kevin Johnson

Kevin Johnson is a university professor, writer, speaker, and retreat leader based in Connecticut.

Cassidy Hall is a writer, photographer, and filmmaker based in Los Angeles.

Carl McColman is an author, catechist, and retreat leader based in Atlanta.

Episode 3: Encountering Silence During the Holidays

Hosted by: Cassidy Hall

With: Kevin Johnson and Carl McColman

Date Recorded: December 19, 2017

Note: our next episode will be released on or about January 3, 2018. In the meantime, we wish you a merry Christmas (or the joyful observance of the holiday of your tradition) and a very happy new year.

The Holiday Season can be joyful and/or stressful—a time when silence remains as important as ever.

How do we encounter silence in our teen years? Alone, or with others? In the woods, or at a church? With a sense of ecstasy, or perhaps even a healthy dose of "adolescent angst"?

In this episode we continue the conversation about "meeting" silence in the days of our youth, this week focusing on our adolescence. Like in the previous episode, such encounters carry a variety of meanings and invitations into deeper reflection, including:

The relationship between silence, nature, solitude, and spirit (Spirit);

How silence can emerge out of even a noisy time in one's life;

How silence transcends religion and spirituality to be a universal gift;

How silence can meet us even in unintended ways and settings;

The surprising way silence comes to us in mystical ways — and how even the most exalted mystical "experience" seems to carry its own challenges or difficulties;

Pondering the relationship between silence and questions.

I was immediately filled with questions, and I was immediately filled with, 'Why? What did I just do? Why did I do it?' and looking back upon that, to me, that was God in that experience — the questions; because I've always been a curious person, because God was in that mystery and the silence and the loneliness of that moment. — Cassidy Hall

Some of the resources and authors we mention in this episode:

Augustine, The Confessions of Saint Augustine

Carl McColman, The Aspiring Mystic: Practical Steps for Spiritual Seekers

Some of the albums Carl loved as a teenager include:

Elton John, Greatest Hits

Emerson Lake & Palmer, Self-Titled

Genesis, Foxtrot

Renaissance, Ashes Are Burning

Yes, Tales From Topographic Oceans

And while we didn't mention them in this episode, our favorite monastic author and favorite documentary on silence always deserve a shout out:

Thomas Merton, Dialogues with Silence

Patrick Shen (director), In Pursuit of Silence

It's beyond words, there's no way to describe this, but it really did make me feel that the world was a lot weirder than I thought it was, for the very first time, and I realized that my categories didn't make sense... — Kevin Johnson

Kevin Johnson is a university professor, writer, speaker, and retreat leader based in Connecticut.

Cassidy Hall is a writer, photographer, and filmmaker based in Los Angeles.

Carl McColman is an author, catechist, and retreat leader based in Atlanta.

Episode 2: Encountering Silence In Adolescence

Hosted by: Kevin Johnson

With: Cassidy Hall and Carl McColman

Date Recorded: October 10, 2017

We continue our conversation about silence by considering silence in the teen/young adult years.

What do you remember about encountering silence in your childhood?

In this episode we explore our first memories of "meeting" silence in childhood, moments in time where, whether in solitude or with others, whether near or far from home, whether shaped by emotional confusion or a sense of simply being present, something graced and mysterious intruded upon our awareness and brought us face to face, not only with the beauty of silence, but also with the mystery of our own deepest and truest selves.

From a lakeside in Virginia, to a Connecticut playground, to a prairie in Iowa, each of our memories involves being out-of-doors. And each of us struggles to put into words what ultimately seems to remain elusive, beyond what language can contain.

I all of a sudden felt extremely safe, completely at home, and there was a sense of I was much bigger than my body, that like somehow I was more than what I thought I was, and... I guess the word is 'presence,' a sense of that I just felt very — that there was something, there was more there than me.

— Kevin Johnson

As our conversation weaves in and around our shared, remembered moments of encounter, we talk about what it means to be present in our bodies, a sense of timelessness or eternity that sometimes seems to accompany the encounter with silence, and the dance of deep feeling, "not-knowing," and longing that shaped our most profound moments of silence — even at a very early age.

Some of the resources and authors we mention in this episode:

e. e. cummings, "A Poet's Advice to Students" in A Miscellany (Revised)

The Desert Fathers and Mothers: Early Christian Wisdom Sayings

Helen Lees, Silence in Schools

C. S. Lewis, "Afterward' in The Pilgrim's Regress

Gerald May, Addiction and Grace

Gerald May, Will and Spirit: A Contemplative Psychology

Patrick Shen (director), In Pursuit of Silence documentary film

Kevin Johnson is a university professor, writer, speaker, and retreat leader based in Connecticut.

Cassidy Hall is a writer, photographer, and filmmaker based in Los Angeles.

Carl McColman is an author, catechist, and retreat leader based in Atlanta.

Episode 1: Encountering Silence in Childhood

Hosted by: Cassidy Hall

With: Carl McColman and Kevin Johnson

Date Recorded: October 2, 2017

In this episode we explore our first memories of "meeting" silence in childhood.

Meet Kevin Johnson, Cassidy Hall, and Carl McColman. We are the hosts and co-creators of Encountering Silence.

This podcast emerged from our friendship, the friendship of three people with a shared interest in the many important ways silence makes a difference our lives — looking at silence in terms of spirituality, of health, of art and aesthetics, of psychology and wisdom. Silence matters, and yet it is a difficult topic to talk about, let alone to deeply and truly understand.

We realize that "talking about silence" is paradoxical, and yet we think it's also vital, especially given how increasingly noisy our society is. We hope that this pilot episode represents the first few words in an ongoing conversation about what silence is, why silence matters, and how we can all learn to encounter silence more truly and deeply.

Some of the resources we mention in this episode:

Martin Buber, I and Thou

Audre Lorde, Your Silence Will Not Protect You

Jean-Luc Marion, God Without Being

Thomas Merton, Selected Essays

Maggie Ross, Silence: A User's Guide, Volume 2: Application

Patrick Shen (director), In Pursuit of Silence documentary film

Our dream for this podcast is to make connections — with people everywhere who love silence, who seek more silence in our lives, who wish to understand and appreciate more fully and be able to speak of the gift of silence in our lives more beautifully. We hope you will connect with us, not only by subscribing to the podcast through iTunes or Google Play, but also by connecting with us via our Facebook Page or Twitter. Thank you.

Kevin Johnson is a university professor, writer, speaker, and retreat leader based on the Connecticut shoreline.

Cassidy Hall is a writer, photographer, and filmmaker based in Los Angeles.

Carl McColman is a contemplative author, speaker, retreat leader, and spiritual companion based in Atlanta.

Episode 0: Pilot Episode

Hosted by: Carl McColman

With: Cassidy Hall and Kevin Johnson

Date Recorded: September 25, 2017

Meet Kevin Johnson, Cassidy Hall, and Carl McColman. We are the hosts and co-creators of Encountering Silence.