vow of silence, 8 years

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I travel the world and ask everyone I meet if they're happy. On today's episode I met a man at Bryce Canyon National Park. He took a vow of silence but was still able to communicate with me about happiness.


Are You Happy?
  / areyouhapppy  
  / are_you_happpy  



Monastic silence is a spiritual practice recommended in a variety of religious traditions for purposes including facilitation of approaching deity, and achieving elevated states of spiritual purity.[1] It may be in accordance with a monk's formal vow of silence, but can also engage laity who have not taken vows, or novices who are preparing to take vows. Monastic silence is more highly developed in the Roman Catholic faith than in Protestantism, but it is not limited to Catholicism. The practice has a corresponding manifestation in the Orthodox church, which teaches that silence is a means to access the deity, to develop self-knowledge,[2] or to live more harmoniously.[3] Theophilus, patriarch of Alexandria, placed the virtue of silence on par with the faith itself in a synodal letter from AD 400. "Monks—if they wish to be what they are called—will love silence and the Catholic faith, for nothing at all is more important than these two things."


The practice of silence is observed during different parts of the day; practitioners talk when they need to but maintain a sense of silence or a sense of prayer when talking. The rules of silence apply to both vowed practitioners and non-vowed guests.[5] Religious recommendations of silence as praxis do not deprecate speech when it is thoughtful and considerate of commonly held values. According to Andrew March of the Benedictine order, we "can listen to substantive speech for hours while five minutes of garrulous speech is too much." It is noteworthy that "silence" can include what is more aptly characterized as "quietness", i.e. speaking in low voice tones.[5] Silence is not an absence of words or thoughts—it is a positive and substantive reality.[5]


"The chief function of monastic silence is then to preserve that memoria Dei which is much more than just 'memory'. It is a total consciousness and awareness of God which is impossible without silence, recollection, solitude and a certain withdrawal."