Most people tend to believe that, “Silence” is the absence of sound or chaos, for the Monk and the Mystic, it is what Mark Nepo calls, “An unencumbered spot, free of expectation and regret, free of ambition and embarrassment, free of fear and worry; an umbilical spot of grace where we were each first touched by God. That spot of grace which issues peace,” which is to be fully realized and actualized in the world. The late Thomas Merton wrote that silence is at the deepest level of communication and, “The deepest level of communication is not communication, but communion. It is wordless. It is beyond words, and it is beyond speech and beyond concept.” True silence is that inherent gift within each of us; our work is to “awaken” to it, to realize it, and to actualize it in our daily living.

I often tell my students, “Your work is to discover what you brought with you (at birth), and what you have picked up along the way.” This is the work of “being spiritual,” the work of both the monk and everyone on the path to enlightenment. We meditate to discover the “unencumbered spot” within us and then to, remove and dismantle all of the “psychological and emotional barriers we have picked up along the way” preventing us from knowing it intimately and actualizing in our world.

When people inquire about coming to a silent retreat at Pine Wind, or to train in meditation, they tell me that they want to come to “find peace” in their lives. While no doubt Pine Wind is a truly peaceful place, I often tell them that, “If you do not find it within yourself it will be difficult even to find it here, or if you do it will only be temporary.” When you talk to most people they talk about meditation as a place they go to, or do, to “find peace,” but the very aim and purpose of a “silent retreat” and “meditation” is discover the peace that is within you, not here or anywhere else. While the retreat will most likely prove to be gratifying, it may not be fulfilling when again the work of being spiritual is to “fully realize our inner divinity and to manifest our enlightenment in the world.”

A retreat center or a Zen monastery is a “conducive environment” for discovery and realization. Whatever we may “find” at any center if it is of any true value must be found within us. It is a tradition in Japan for laypersons to go on retreat at a Zen monastery, perhaps for three months, but they cannot stay any longer. The environment, the etiquette, and the meals provided, will surely provide them with everything they need, but the validity of whatever it is they discover comes only after they leave. “It is always easy to be holy on a mountain.”

As it has for centuries, the world is presently in need of a different language, a new form of communication, and I believe it can only be found at that deepest level where “communication is communion”. Only then will we be able to begin the arduous task of learning to “move towards each other,” a “life together”.

I love you.

Seijaku Roshi is the founder of The Center for Spirituality and Contemplation, and spiritual director of Pine Wind Zen Community, at 863 McKendimen Rd., in Shamong, NJ. He is a Zen-Buddhist Monk, parent, author, life coach and Abbot. Learn more at PineWind.org.