Welcome to General Chat - GAW Community Area
This General Chat area started off as a place for people to talk about things that are off topic, however it has quickly evolved into a community and has become an integral part of the GAW experience for many of us.
Based on its evolving needs and plenty of user feedback, we are trying to bring some order and institute some rules. Please make sure you read these rules and participate in the spirit of this community.
Rules for General Chat
-
Be respectful to each other. This is of utmost importance, and comments may be removed if deemed not respectful.
-
Avoid long drawn out arguments. This should be a place to relax, not to waste your time needlessly.
-
Personal anecdotes, puzzles, cute pics/clips - everything welcome
-
Please do not spam at the top level. If you have a lot to post each day, try and post them all together in one top level comment
-
Try keep things light. If you are bringing in deep stuff, try not to go overboard.
-
Things that are clearly on-topic for this board should be posted as a separate post and not here (except if you are new and still getting the feel of this place)
-
If you find people violating these rules, deport them rather than start a argument here.
-
Feel free to give feedback as these rules are expected to keep evolving
In short, imagine this thread to be a local community hall where we all gather and chat daily. Please be respectful to others in the same way
Rules For the rest of the Site also accessible on the sidebar.
--
Notes on Silence
I got in to a habit of trying make more use of "spare moments" in time that made me feel a bit "overwhelmed", and I found "silence" as a remedy to this.
Is Silence "Meditation"?
One confusing thing for a while was the practice of "meditation", which is more associated with the non-Christian Eastern religions such as Hinduism and Buddhism but has become popularized in the West as a habit.
Meditation is a distinct practice of focused attention that is not the same as silence as understood here. Silence does not require attention, but can be perhaps an absence of focused attention.
So I do not consider silence to be a "form of meditation" and do think Christians could avoid "meditation" and instead pray (which will have some focus of attention) or observe silence (which might lack as much focus of attention).
"Meditation" is also kind of vague, as there are all kinds of "meditation practices" that exist, while silence is kind of "one" practice of an "abstinence from external inputs".
Silence in Religion
Silence has been recommended a bit in the Christian West, although it doesn't seem to get as much attention today. For example in the Catholic Encyclopedia, the entry on "silence" says:
https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13790a.htm
Conclusion
Silence seems kind of like a "fast" from all activity, including concentration exercises like meditation. For me it's felt like an antidote to information overload, noise, and overstimulation.
Have you had any thoughts or experiences to share related to the topic of silence as a religious practice?
edit: another Catholic writing on silence: https://www.ecatholic2000.com/cts/untitled-562.shtml