I slowly began to make out forms and shapes, and the shapes soon became brighter until I was in a world of just light . . . As I flowed like mercury into the center of this light field, I knew I was Home! I had been there before. At the center of this awesome experience was a round ball of living water. I stepped into the middle of this ball of light-filled water just as I was asked to return. I know I'll go back there… I didn’t want to return, I was so alive.
For the abbas (fathers) and ammas (mothers) of the desert, solitude with its silence was a creative medium, a forge of transformation through which the false self in its adaptation to the pride, luxury, lust for power, and greed of the "world" was melted away in the fires of spiritual discernment. One emerged from the silence as a transformed self ... a person of humility, compassion, and responsiveness to the Word of God.
Silence was much more than not speaking, it was mostly a quality of heart. It was the creation of an inner space where genuine listening takes place. The ammas and abbas knew that in silence the Word most readily takes root.