Sit down and shut up – 17 August 2012

James Bishop spent 10 years in prison. During that time he began to practice Christian Meditation in a group taught and led by Sr Benita Lankford, a Benedictine nun. Later, still in prison he became a novice Benedictine Oblate, and eventually took his final vows. Fr Laurence Freeman describes how that happened one day when the prison was in lockdown because of some incident, but the officers allowed the meditation group to meet and James Bishop to take his vows. Now he is out of prison, and he has written a book called A Way In The Wilderness. He calls it “a commentary on the Rule of St Benedict for physically and spiritually imprisoned people.” I have just begun to read this commentary. Already it is remarkable. James Bishop writes simply, directly, succinctly, lucidly. I am starting to wonder if he is putting to shame those of us who, as Disraeli said about Gladstone, are intoxicated with the exuberance of our own verbosity. The first word in the Rule of St Benedict, as is often pointed out, is “Listen…”

Listen, my son, to the precepts of your master, and incline the ear of your heart…

One of the three Benedictine vows is the vow of Obedience -- and obey comes from the Latin verb meaning to listen. Listening is more important than speaking and having opinions. It is also humbler. To listen is to remember our obligation to be teachable, so to listen is to be a disciple. In James Bishop’s words:

It is to sit down and shut up... Sitting down stills the body. Don’t move around and wriggle. Just sit quietly and calmly. Shutting up means more than not speaking; it means quieting the mind…

I watch Coronation Street in horror and fascination because it depicts, it seems to me, the precise opposite of a listening faith and life. On Coronation Street they respond to every person and every event verbally and often as not abusively. The words are frequently a preliminary to much yelling and accusation and punch-ups. No one tells the truth – it is a diet of silly, futile lies. Egoism reigns supreme. Although admittedly extreme, it is reflected quite chillingly in various aspects of NZ culture. James Bishop found a way to be still and silent in the horror of a prison. He used earphones to signify that he was unavailable for interruption. Of some 7 months in solitary confinement, officially called Administrative Segregation and which the prisoners called The Hole, with no TV or radio, never allowed outside, he wrote: The advantage of being there was that I could meditate very well.