tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10944560.post2302484040896537609..comments2024-01-01T08:18:36.278-05:00Comments on Real Physics: Keeping SilenceLawrence Gagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01242322119143922513noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10944560.post-85848440120438074062007-12-26T22:33:00.000-05:002007-12-26T22:33:00.000-05:00A miscellany of related but jumbled thoughts:Perfo...A miscellany of related but jumbled thoughts:<BR/><BR/>Performing a multitude of rote tasks - or perhaps sub-tasks - can in fact create a kind of mental silence. The absence of specific memory may indicate an absence of a certain kind of reflective thought, but it need not indicate a lack of awareness; indeed, the lack of fact-manufacturing concept-comparing thought may leave the mind free to encounter reality more directly. Some monks of my acquaintance have suggested that the prayer of the rosary, occupying the fingers, the linguistic mechanics and the imagination as the fingers work the beads, the lips repeat the rote prayers, and the imagination follows the mysteries, actually free the intellect to a kind of listening that is only possible when the lower functions are kept occupied - and hence, in a way, silent - on their lower-order tasks.<BR/><BR/>And on silence: I believe that the composer Anton von Webern said "Silence is the music of God."Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com