The Virtue Of Silence Essay - 990 Words

THE VIRTUE OF SILENCE nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;Of all the virtues that most men and women disregard, it is silence. People go about in their everyday lives not even noticing the beauty of ones quot;inner silence.quot; Try an experiment: Close your eyes. Tune out the sounds from everything thats surrounding you, and focus on what is going on inside you. Take a deep breath and just listen. How many inner voices did you hear? Most people do not even realize the amount of noise that is carried around in the human body. As you can see, even in the remarkably noisy age we live in, the real noise is on the inside. But even these noises can dissappear if one wishes. All one needs to do is study one of many religions, such as Buddhism,†¦show more content†¦One has to be able to drown out all sounds so that there is no sound to be heard. Its as though it doesnt exist. nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;The Christian and Jewish methods, however, differ greatly. These two separate religions believe that to go about reaching a state of perfect silence and meditation, one must pray to God. Both of these religions teach that if a person wanted to drown out the rest of the world, including ones own self, that person must pray. A meditative prayer where people fall into a trance, allowing only thought to occur. No sound can penetrate their thoughts. Absolute, utter silence. nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;Christianity, and mainly Monasticism, believe that silence keeps the heart and soul pure. By not speaking, one may not taint their lips with quot;evilquot;. Hence, in monasteries, monks take on vows of silence. They believe that with the help of God they can overcome the urge to speak evil against anyone else, thus keeping there souls pure. This, however, is much harder than it seems. Jews and Buddhists do not always need to keep silent. Jews meditate and pray on a weekly basis. Buddhists, too, dont feel as though they need to take on a full time vow like the monasteries demand. It is detrimental to a monastic lifestyle that a vow of silence be kept. Its importance is to help a monk concentrate on his prayers and his love of God. People who disregard this important rule of monasticism are not tolerated becauseShow MoreRelatedBenjamin Franklin Virtue Essay997 Words   |  4 Pageswould be found to be impossible, but in turn he learned that many of the virtues are good to try and maintain during everyday activities and through life itself. By maintaining these virtues the quality of life can be expected to be exponentially greater than without them. Three of the virtues that stand out the most are Silence, Order, and Moderation. 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