Lots of people have taught me a wide variety of lessons. I am not sure I have ever learned anything I did not learn from another person.
Parents and siblings, teachers and preachers, coworkers and friends, people have taught me. I have learned from some people by listening to them, or by reading what they have written. Each person who has taught me anything has helped shape who I am and what I do.
One kind of person has taught me more without words than any others I have even known.
Other than my wife, the people who have taught me the most by their example are monks.
I depend on the wisdom and leadership of monks. I am a lay oblate at a Benedictine hermitage, and am committed to following a rule of life. I spend time each day praying and reflecting with monks, even when I cannot be with them physically. When I do visit the hermitage, in Big Sur, California, we do not spend much time in conversation. We spend time together in silence.
We have an interesting relationship. There are people I see at least once each year who I know by sight, though we have never spoken. We reflect and pray together, just like we do when we are in separate places. They welcome me and share themselves with me. I can observe, and learn from their examples.
Our silent time together always leaves me thirsting for more. They teach me deep lessons about how to balance work and rest, contemplation and action. I can hear better when immersed in the silence, and learn lessons to apply when I leave.
Whose examples are you following?
Where do you go to listen to deep silence?
When have you learned without depending on words?
[Image by Graniers]
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