The Big Silence
Abbot Christopher Jamison, a Benedictine monk, believes that he can teach five ordinary people the value of silent meditation, as practised by monks in monasteries, so they can make it part of their everyday lives.
He sets up a three-month experiment to test out whether the ancient Christian tradition of silence can become part of modern lives.
Christopher brings the five volunteers to his own monastery, Worth Abbey, before sending them to begin a daunting eight days in complete silence at a specialist retreat center.
Journey into the interior space that time in silence reveals. They encounter anger, frustration and rebellion, but finally find their way to both personal and spiritual revelation.
Will they make silent contemplation a part of their everyday lives? How much will their lives be changed by what they have discovered in their time in silence And will Abbot Christopher's hope, that they will discover a new belief in God, be fulfilled?
Beautiful documentary. I agree with the 3 at the end that you don't have to connect God with religion. I believe religion is man made but spirituality is something that can be achieved by all. I'd really love to take part in a silent retreat one day.
For those who suggest that the Benedictine discipline of silence is new or a take off on new age religion- St. Benedict formed his Rule and monastary about the year 530. Silence was not a concept either. I really enjoyed the documentary and love Norvene Vest's book No Moment Too Small that is an easy read but has exercise that introduce ways to bring the disciplines of prayer, study (lectio divina) and silence into the daily life.
Reminded me very much of Zen Buddhism and some versions of Yoga, which also operate on silence and inner focus. In the end, maybe it's all the same, whatever name you give it.
That's why I appear to understand why some of these people resisted ("antipathy", father Christopher calls it) embracing Catholicism. There is a big distance between spirituality and doctrine, that should not be ignored.
Gorgeous documentary, indeed. I also watched the full 3 hours all at once.
Beautiful, what an experience.
The integrity and warmth of father Christopher touches me. I have experienced the monasterian tradition and spirituality of the Carmelites and it's become a part of my life.
Silence, such a life tresure. It's possible to include one part of silence, even when it's just a minute of five, in every day life.
Some of the music is lovely. reminds me of Richard Skelton and his Broken Consort. Well worth watching.Very enjoyable.
lovely..a documentary about silence...with tasteful incidental backing from the 'bbc soundtrack' cd....just turn stuff o
rned on (edit) further on..from what that hELEN SAID seems the monks have dukebox....or a ace venue for synthesis x :)
btw cat n'pgeons, i thgt the BBC was ad free? i won't peek but i guess them's monks retreat got a site?....nn x
silence isn't lack of noise.. its there all the time, like a bike u can ride? now there's a thought........
The 5 in the documentary were emotionally vulnerable, either from recent deaths, a shitty childhood or from losing their job. They're not a fair cross-section of society, but that doesn't mean silence doesn't help.
This would be an interesting documentary: take 5 religious leaders and get them to smoke DMT for 8 days... would they attribute the God they find to their religious practice or the magic cigarette they just smoked? And even if they held on to their religious beliefs, why would their God choose to reveal Himself through DMT, or another psychedelic...?
This is a fantastic documentary!
I watched the whole thing in one go - even though it's in 3 parts, an hour long each. I had tears in my eyes towards the end of the second hour...
The transformation and the opening up of the five souls - like that of a pine cone - was just beautiful... The way that the 'ego-masks' were dropping away by the end of the 8 day practice was just wonderful.
I have to do this as well. I'm inspired...
It just shows that all of us have a connection with the divine, if we just are willing to step out of 'the matrix'. (And what a seductively binding matrix it is...)
@ SaintNarcissus
You my friend are an inspiration. I love your intelligence and thoughtfulness which you put into your debates, with some of, ahem, 'much lesser kind'.
Frankly, I find atheists such "wannabes". I can accept agnostics, at least they're honest about it. But atheists, who shout from roof tops that they know with certainty there is no God, when God is so much bigger than their little materialistic theories, are just plain infuriating....
They just regurgitate the babble of 'Dawkins and co', (the new pseudo-intellectual-fad of 21st centruy) - who are making mighty fine profits peddling half ass philosophy, to an ADD generation.
Atheists are very much the new dogmatists - the very thing they hate.
The irony is, they're absolutely blind to their way of speaking.
So thank you for letting me see that there may be some hope in the world. Loved reading your masterful wisdom. :)
This is a great point about the power of silence and creativity. I would add that there is a bit too much superimposing of religious ideology on the silence or suggestions of what will happen when you enter silence instead of just bringing in the people and letting them discover what they will and phrase their discovery however they want.
I have been fascinated from the moment I came upon this documentary - THE BIG SILENCE. It brought up many meaningful thoughts and caused me to think about the ability to silence ourselves so that we can hear our Father Creator who I do believe is present whether we access His presence or not. Through silence, if we believe, we are filled with His Spirit and receive wisdom that is beyond our own consciousness. I was intrigued with the spiritual guides comments regarding each person in the experience. They seemed to have understanding of human nature beyond most of us. I really like the way they related to the people practicing silence. They added to the depth of the experience. The BIG SILENCE brought many bible passages to mind: Psalm 46:10 Be Still and Know that I am God
Romans 1:20 For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities -
His eternal power and divine nature - have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.
Would love to go to Wales and do 8 days of silence. Since Wales is not close - I am motivated to go to a monastery closer by for silence. To God be the Glory.
I think he means god is always there but if your head is full of noise how can you taste or know something so subtle and wonderous?
uh-oh.
I hope I didn't hear what I just heard. The Father said that "if you ain't got a pure heart, then you can't see G-d."
Rubbish.
I hope he didn't mean that. Because if you're a Christian, you can't attain to purity of heart without G-d. And if you can't see God until you're pure, you've set up a very nasty catch-22.
I hope he and the Church don't really believe that, because is they do, then they're playing games with your souls. And that's manipulative and it's evil.
It's amazing how we as humans don't really grasp how accustomed we are to noise, distraction, and diversion. I've visited several monasteries (Trappist) and had identical feelings and perceptions as the people in this documentary. When you're born into something, and live within it (our cultures), we don't know that it can be different.
Get bored? Turn on the telly. Grab a book. Call a friend. Play a game. Find some busy work. All of these things are fine, but if they are what we do exclusively, then we are missing out on so much.
Think about it this way. Imagine yourself day after day after day, having someone following you around talking at you constantly. Never a break. Always words thrown at you, even while you sleep.
You'd go mad.
And we are going mad.
Because that's exactly what we do to ourselves. That person following us around all day, talking relentlessly, is ourselves.
It's called thought. And we never get a real break from it. Meditation and meditative prayer does that for us. It's a vacation for our minds. A silent mind is a mind that listens. It's no longer clogged with thoughts. It is free.
And if our intention is to be more loving, generous, kind, forgiving, etc., then what we will hear is the wisdom it takes to do just that. It comes in through the silence. It really does.
I haven't yet seen the entire thing, but so far, it's a truthful portrayal, as far as my own experience goes.
Isaac Newton would sit passively for several solid hours at a stretch, day after day, just letting understanding of a situation develop incrementally in his imagination, slowly budding, branching and flowering like a plant. He said that this practice of holding a subject "ever before me" was the secret of his great genius, and that Truth was "the offspring of silence and unbroken meditation".
Yes Tamma! That's what I also said in my own comment.
I was about to watch the video and thought I'd read the first few comments. After reading them, all I could think was "Why can't those who commented comprehend written English?"
I am speaking of those who took issue with the inclusion of Christianity, God or "a belief system" being discussed by those who were in the video.
Did you not read the first WORD of the description, let alone the first two short paragraphs?
Here, let me copy them down for you:
ABBOT Christopher Jamison, a BENEDICTINE MONK, believes that he can teach five ordinary people the value of silent meditation, as practised by MONKS in MONASTERIES, so they can make it part of their everyday lives.
He sets up a three-month experiment to test out whether the ancient CHRISTIAN tradition of silence can become part of modern lives.
In the description above what exactly makes you believe that the persons in the documentary will not include references to Christianity, God and/or a belief system that is connected to the CHRISTIAN tradition of silence?????
Sheesh people, what did you expect?
If the documentary had been set in a secular environment run by those not part of a religious order, you might have had a point. It wasn't and you don't.
I am an atheist and I have done a similar retreat, but it was also at a catholic monastery. Where would an atheist or non-religious person go for a similar experience? I guess they could just go to a cottage and bring a psychologist with them or something.
A spacious, brave experiment with silence. Really, isn't it intriguing? How often have I explored the inner space of my own experience? Very Brave I think. Such a rare opportunity. I'm thankful to all of these folks involved, for their honesty and courage. I highly recommend trying a retreat with some tradition or group that you feel has the ability, and familiarity and expertise to guide participants in having some supportive silent time like this. You may doubt and criticize all you like, but you won't REALLY know for Yourself until you try it. ... be curious...
I have experience with this sort of thing. Being alone, particularly in nature, is nothing less than sacred for the person who has the spiritual equipment to realize it. I've more than once been a guest on retreat at a particular monastery in Atlantic Canada. It really is, at first, either a huge relief -- like stepping out of a painfully loud room -- or a shock immediately preceding symptoms of withdrawal from the frenetic buzz of urban life. No advertising, so spin, to stigma, no praise... just you. After a few days, the head clears, much like the ringing in one's ears fades away after standing too long next to a blasting speaker. Perspective widens and nature itself reveals itself to you, naked as it always has been. But now you have nothing to do but pay attention. In any case, that was my experience. Whatever you presently claim to believe concerning the existence and origins of consciousness in the universe, as well as the exact nature of its relationship to the human skull, including your own, it can all be understood most clearly and felt most powerfully on the background of substantial silence and solitude.
This is a good movie. It reminds the Westerners who are seeking spirituality to look into their own traditions namely Christian in general and Catholic monasticism in particular.
I am Asian a convert to Catholic from Buddhism. I am glad that the Christian tradition do have the msytical path just like some Eastern faiths. In my opinion, the Catholic msytical tradition looks into meditaion not as a technique or an attainment to something or someone but a relationship with our Creator. It is the practice of no self ; a life of surrender. A life of surrender; living for my Beloved God is what really make me at peace with myself and others.
Life begins to have real meaning and happiness.
Thank you Jack!!! Ah the sweet sound of solid reasoning. I absolutely agree. I don't regard the bible as a scientific text and I don't see my faith as needing to be in the realm of certainty. Creationists who embarrass themselves by trying to turn bronze age texts into scientifically reconcilable documents are out of their depth and plain wrong, as are supposedly empirically concerned atheists who see it as their role in life to badger people with religious beliefs. My religious experience, or whatever you want to call it, is based above anything else upon my own experience which is absolutely subjective and I wouldn't have it any other way. One is subjective, and as you say personal. Science, as you say, is not.
Thank you. And thanks for clarifying the bit about anger, also an excellent point.
See people? See what can happen when we think and dialogue instead of reacting and presuming? Its a lovely thing.
@ keith
In the above post, I should have said "as that is in the nature of trying to discover new facts"
@ keith
I was referring more to those who think they're smart and believe their anger proves them right.
Personal beliefs as pertaining to religion, are just that; personal. They are neither right or wrong. They only exist. When asked how you feel you can't be wrong if you are honest about your feelings. Science is based on facts and is therefore subject to errors as that is the nature of facts. Science and religion are two different disciplines. They can co-exist but only when we make a conscious effort to allow it to happen.
Jacque Fresco right? Well put, I must say. I myself am catholic and was raised with it. But I am my own person with my own responsibility to check into things. My parents and the generations before me checked into things as I have. We have all came to the conclusion that what we were raised to believe is truth. There are unfortunatly many people that dont study their religion. That leads to people doing and saying wrong things in the name of their religion. The same happens with Atheists. Many times I hear or read misinformed statements about Christianity from Atheists.