what it is? How to make a vow to a woman or a man? How long does a vow last in Orthodoxy and other religions?

Each per­son com­mu­ni­cates through­out the day. It is dif­fi­cult to imag­ine your own life with­out express­ing your thoughts with the help of voice. How­ev­er, some peo­ple are able to live with­out talk­ing and with­out access to the Inter­net. They take a vow of silence for the sake of con­tem­pla­tion, med­i­ta­tion or prayer.

The vow of silence is one of the most com­mon promis­es made to God. It is used in var­i­ous reli­gious move­ments and world reli­gions. The dura­tion of an oath can range from a few min­utes to many years. The main pur­pose of the vow is to con­nect with God, self-con­tem­pla­tion and renun­ci­a­tion of every­day fuss. At the same time, the rit­u­al sig­nif­i­cance can dif­fer sig­nif­i­cant­ly.

The mean­ing of phrase­ol­o­gism lit­er­al­ly indi­cates the pres­ence of an oath not to talk at all. This means that the per­son refrains from speak­ing. By such a real action, the sub­ject con­firms his faith in God or some spir­its. The main task is con­tin­u­ous men­tal com­mu­ni­ca­tion with high­er pow­ers. A com­plex and impor­tant spir­i­tu­al prac­tice helps to put the mind in order, take a break from the influx of var­i­ous infor­ma­tion.

The vow of silence can have a fig­u­ra­tive mean­ing in the case when it comes to the vow not to touch on a cer­tain top­ic in con­ver­sa­tions with oth­er peo­ple. In this case, it may mean keep­ing a secret.

Silence helps men strength­en their willpow­er and com­pre­hend their pur­pose in life. It is impor­tant for women in a peri­od of calm to know their own fem­i­nin­i­ty and the truth of their desires. Peo­ple fall silent in the hope of learn­ing to hear them­selves and oth­ers.

For the sake of acquir­ing silence, the ascetics retired to deserts and forests, the monks retired to their cells. Silence helped them lis­ten to God’s answer in order to come clos­er to know­ing the truth.. The great­est ascetic, Rev­erend Sergius of Radonezh, took a vow of silence in his declin­ing years. Just before his death, he did not utter a sin­gle word dur­ing the last six months of his earth­ly jour­ney. And at the recluse of one of the monas­ter­ies of the Nov­gorod region, Vera the Silencer, the vow last­ed 23 years.

Peo­ple who prac­tice yoga and med­i­ta­tive tech­niques keep silence in order to estab­lish a con­nec­tion with the spir­i­tu­al prin­ci­ple. Inner silence devel­ops the abil­i­ty to per­fect­ly con­trol one­self. A Bud­dhist can stay in com­plete calm from a few min­utes to 10 days.

The Qur’an excludes the pos­si­bil­i­ty of being silent all day until night­fall. The vow of silence is for­bid­den, but Mus­lims try to pro­tect them­selves from emp­ty talk. Peo­ple are for­bid­den to say aloud state­ments that do not bring any ben­e­fit to reli­gion and every­day life. Dur­ing the fast of silence, a Mus­lim is oblig­ed to refrain from lying, gos­sip and slan­der.

The mod­ern world is filled with flows of neg­a­tive infor­ma­tion that pro­vokes anx­i­ety and fear. Neg­a­tive emo­tions inter­fere with career growth and the devel­op­ment of inter­per­son­al rela­tion­ships. In this state, it is dif­fi­cult for a per­son to achieve har­mo­ny with him­self. In every­day bus­tle, it is dif­fi­cult for an indi­vid­ual to under­stand the pur­pose of his birth, to rec­og­nize the main life tasks. Silence helps to pen­e­trate into the essence of many things, draw wis­dom and find peace.

Silence does no harm to the indi­vid­ual. For a sub­ject who is not dis­tract­ed by noise and extra­ne­ous tasks, the thought process pro­ceeds dif­fer­ent­ly. The brain receives a cer­tain free­dom from the exter­nal envi­ron­ment. The per­son­al­i­ty is focused on the inner world. Long-term silent soli­tude helps a per­son to clear his thoughts, to know him­self and tune in a pos­i­tive way.

The vow of silence implies con­stant self-obser­va­tion. The indi­vid­ual must exer­cise great respon­si­bil­i­ty and vig­i­lance. Some resort to immer­sion in silence in order to get rid of bad habits. The sub­ject takes an oath that he will begin to talk only after com­plete­ly giv­ing up smok­ing, tak­ing alco­holic bev­er­ages or drugs. Too talk­a­tive peo­ple vow forces con­stant­ly con­trol over ver­bal intem­per­ance.

The dura­tion of silence depends on the tasks. A per­son can remain silent for a short peri­od of time. The action can be main­tained for sev­er­al min­utes allo­cat­ed for yoga class­es or prayers. Some­one is silent all day for the sake of test­ing him­self.

Some give a vow of silence for the rest of their lives. Some­times an emer­gency sit­u­a­tion or oth­er cir­cum­stances lead to a forced vio­la­tion of a vow. The price of peo­ple’s well-being is high­er than any giv­en oaths.

Experts rec­om­mend start­ing with dai­ly silence for sev­er­al hours. It is very impor­tant for a woman to learn to restrain her speech. She should refrain from mak­ing unnec­es­sary state­ments. A man needs to tem­per his anger. Before div­ing into com­plete silence, you need to care­ful­ly weigh the pros and cons. A vow of silence is easy to give, but dif­fi­cult to keep.

You should first talk with your spir­i­tu­al men­tor. It will help you find the right way to draw clos­er to God. It is nec­es­sary to study the rel­e­vant lit­er­a­ture on spir­i­tu­al self-improve­ment. Only after you can take respon­si­bil­i­ty can you take a sacred oath.

Great dif­fi­cul­ties can arise for a work­ing per­son. It is nec­es­sary to obtain the per­mis­sion of the head in advance. Often a vow gets in the way of doing the job prop­er­ly. If the author­i­ties did not approve of your deci­sion, then it is bet­ter to trans­fer the vow of silence to vaca­tion days. Stu­dents should also enlist the sup­port of the teacher before such a seri­ous act.

Some pre-make the nec­es­sary inscrip­tions on the card. For exam­ple, “I have a vow of silence” or “we’ll meet in a month and dis­cuss all the prob­lems.”

For com­plete immer­sion in your thoughts, you can rent a sep­a­rate apart­ment, coun­try house or cot­tage. It is very impor­tant to warn your loved ones and acquain­tances about your impend­ing silence. Then you need to define clear bound­aries: whether elec­tron­ic mes­sages, non-ver­bal com­mu­ni­ca­tion or com­mu­ni­ca­tion through notes are pos­si­ble. Set your own rules. After that, you need to care­ful­ly work out all your fur­ther actions dur­ing the peri­od of silence.