Entering and sitting in silence

Create interior and exterior silence — the necessary soil for contemplative prayer to grow.

Why it works

Merton taught that noise, both literal and interior, is not merely uncomfortable but actively obstructive: it keeps the practitioner at the surface of experience rather than at depth. Physiologically, silence and reduced sensory load lower sympathetic arousal, allowing the kind of receptive, open-awareness state that contemplative prayer requires. The practice is also a choice — willingness to stop being busy even when the world insists otherwise.

How to do it

1. Choose a regular time and quiet place — before others wake, during a lunch break, in a chapel — and protect it.
2. Begin by settling the body: sit comfortably, breathe slowly, and allow the outer noise to recede.
3. When interior chatter continues, do not fight it; Merton often recommended a brief word ("God," "love") used not as a mantra but as a gentle return.
4. Aim for 20–30 minutes of silence regularly; shorter daily practice beats sporadic long sessions.

Evidence

Silence and reduced sensory stimulation lower cortisol and activate parasympathetic pathways — the physiological substrate for deep rest and openness. The spiritual aims of contemplative silence go beyond these mechanisms and are not measurable by them. (mechanistic)

The physiological benefits of silence and stillness are supported generally; whether those mechanisms account for the contemplative transformation Merton describes is a different and not scientifically answerable question.

Common mistake

Treating silence as an absence to endure rather than a presence to enter — filling it with spiritual reading, mental liturgy, or planning, which keeps the practitioner in verbal, active mode.