Message: Learn to Stay Silent
February 20, 2015
Listening to this message, I realized how much I still need to learn to stay silent… and I wanted to share it.
Learn to silence the word that leaves your lips shouting, wounding another’s sensitivity and leaving you at the mercy of lesser company.
Learn to stay silent…
Learn to silence the soft word, laced with irony, that mocks and humiliates whoever it’s aimed at, and that poisons you in turn, causing stomach pain, nausea, or headaches.
Learn to stay silent…
Learn to silence the murmur that slips through clenched teeth, distilling anger and resentment, striking its target like a blade, while weakening you to the point where you no longer recognize yourself, startled by who you’ve become.
Learn to stay silent…
Learn to silence the cruel thought that crosses your mind and that, through carelessness, you dwell on longer than you should. You would be startled if you could see your own distorted spiritual mask.
Learn to stay silent…
Learn to silence the judgment that goes beyond what you see and know, leading you to speculate about someone else — what you don’t know and didn’t witness — shaping unfortunate ideas that are seized upon by those who oppose the one being judged.
Learn to stay silent…
Learn to silence every unworthy feeling, guarding the wellspring of your heart, so that it neither stains nor is stained.
Learn to watch over your feelings so that, each day, more attentive and vigilant, you may rise out of the small sphere you willingly imprison yourself in, and take flight toward higher, more sublime places.
Learn to stay silent…
And while you still can’t stop yourself from shouting, speaking, murmuring, thinking cruelly, and judging, keep praying through those moments, even if the words feel disconnected and empty of feeling.
Keep praying until, one day, you pray not with words or thoughts, but become feeling itself — pure and true love in action, dynamic, embracing others and yourself, a true disciple at last.
Learn, once and for all, to stay silent!
Written for Momento Espírita, based on a message from the spirit Stephano, psychographed by Marie-Chantal Dufour Eisenbach at Sociedade Espírita Renovação on 03/14/2005. Available on the Momento Espírita CD, vol. 11, FEP. Originally shared on 01/31/2010.