Category: silence

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Avoesis – film

Psyche offers a 9-min. film by Mykhailo Bogdano titled “Avoesis,” a term coined by ecologist Liam Heneghan to describe a “form of quietness, one that is not precisely silence.” Byline: “There’s a nourishing calm in quietly wandering, far from goals and distractions.”

From the website: “In his treatment, Bogdanov interweaves interviews with Heneghan and the Catholic priest and writer Edward Tverdek with scenes depicting Jesus’ 40 days spent wandering the desert, deepening the timeless and spiritual dimensions of the ideas at hand.”
URL: https://psyche.co/videos/theres-a-nourishing-calm-in-quietly-wandering-far-from-goals-and-distractions

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Silence and Its Thoughts – book

A review article in the Vatican’s official publication L’Osservatore Romano addresses a recent book Il silenzio e i suoi pensieri. L’esperienza dell’eremo nel nostro tempo [Silence and Its Thoughts. The Experience of the Hermitage in Our Time], edited by G. Giambalvo Dal Ben.

The Engllsh-language review is titled: “Being alone for others: hermitism today.”

From the article: “It is not, in fact, being alone in a place that makes a hermit but being in the presence of the Lord in the name of all those who do not fit in, do not know or do not want to, and on their behalf,”

“Hermitage is an experience closely linked to monasticism, which is why I was interested in reading this periodic survey that scholars, journalists, and interested individuals have attempted regarding this vocation. It is the result of meetings organized by the Christian Meditation Center of Florence, and it is not ‘a book about hermits, but a book written by hermits, based on the conviction that to “investigate the meaning of solitary life today;’ it is more useful to listen to the living testimony of individuals who have made this choice.”

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Perspectives on silence

The US public radio program “To The Best Of Our Knowledge” (TTBOOK) recently repeated an hour-long segment on silence titled “Taking Comfort in the Sound of Silence.” The program features several segments, the descriptions below are from the program.

These versions of silence are not explicitly eremitic but are certainly interesting applications. Norwegian writer and adventurer Erling Kagge wrote of his South Pole experience in Alone to the South Pole (1993). He has written a 2016 book Silence in the Age of Noise and, most recently, Walking: One Step At A Time, both recommended to Hermitary readers. The role of silence in the works of John Cage have been addressed here: https://www.hermitary.com/solitude/cage.html

The Contemplative Silence of A Long Cold Journey
In 1993, Norwegian explorer Erling Kagge made history by becoming the first person to cross Antarctica alone. He was by himself for fifty days and during his trek, he learned a lot about the power of silence and the importance of making time for it in our noisy, hectic lives.

A Nature Preserve For The Quiet Of Nature
If you’re looking for silence here in the U.S., you might want to visit “One Square Inch of Silence.” It’s a spot inside the Hoh Rain Forest in Washington State’s Olympic National Park. Acoustic ecologist Gordon Hempton created it, as part of his life mission to record the sound of silence.

The Volume of Absolute Silence
The world is getting noisier and it’s hurting us. When George Mickelson Foy got worried about all of the toxic noise in his life, he set on a quest for absolute silence.

The Tale of A Mute Piano Performance
John Cage’s “4’33” was first performed on August 29th, 1952, by pianist David Tudor. He came out on stage, sat at the piano, and did not play. The audience was not impressed. Kyle Gann tells the story in “No Such Thing as Silence.”

A Silent Soliloquy From The World’s Greatest Mime
For more than 60 years, the great French mime Marcel Marceau dominated stages around the world without ever saying a word. Shawn Wen documents Marceau’s story in a book-length essay called “A Twenty Minute Silence Followed by Applause.”

The Pauses Between Chords of Iconic Rock and Roll
For author Jennifer Egan — whose novel “A Visit From The Goon Squad” documents the inner life of lifelong rock and roll stars—the pauses in rock ballads might say as much or more than the riffs.

URL: https://www.ttbook.org/show/taking-comfort-sound-silence

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Sara Maitland: desert silence

In Christian Century (March 2012 issue) author Sara Maitland (A Book of Silence, 2010; How to Be Alone, 2014) has written of her annual journey to the Sinai desert seeking meditative silence. From the article:

I feel a strong spiritual affinity for deserts. For the last six years I have lived as a semihermit on a moor in southern Scotland, which is isolated, wild and, to me, extraordinarily lovely. However, it is not a desert, so every fall I go to Sinai for a week. In order to be able to afford this—silence not being very profitable in the 21st century—I am employed by a travel company to introduce other people to desert silence. The company, which hires members of the Bedouin tribe as hosts, has a serious ecological commitment and a deep, predominantly Christian spiritual agenda. The expedition I work on, however, is not a standard retreat but a nondenominational exploration of silence itself. One consequent privilege is to have travelers from a wide range of traditions—including Muslims, Buddhists, Jews and people without any explicit religious affiliation, as well as Christians from across the spectrum.

URL: http://www.christiancentury.org/article/2012-03/pursuit-silence

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“In Pursuit of Silence” – film kickstarter

A Kickstarter campaign to complete Transcendental Media’s film project “In Pursuit of Silence” is nearing deadline, with funds still needed for last production trips and completion of film editing.

The project is described in great detail at the Kickstarter website: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/transcendentalmedia/in-pursuit-of-silence-finish-the-film and on the project’s website: http://www.pursuitofsilence.com

Here is a descriptive excerpt about the film, followed by the trailer:

In Pursuit of Silence is a meditative film about the value of silence, our relationship with sound, and the implications of living in such a noisy world. From the Desert Fathers of the third century AD who became the model for Christian monasticism to John Cage’s seminal work 4’33” which would go onto inspire a generation of artists, humankind has had a long fascination with silence. In our race towards modernity, amidst all the technological innovation and the rapid growth of our cities, silence is now quickly passing into legend. We struggle to hear ourselves think, imagine, and connect with one another. Offering audiences a contemplative cinematic experience, the sights and sounds of this film will work its way through frantic minds, into the quiet spaces of hearts, and help shape a new vision of being.