“In the midst of movement and chaos, keep stillness inside of you.” This advice from Deepak Chopra sounds inspiring but trying to do it proves hard.

For me, the better way to start is by reducing the noise outside us. How about turning off the TV, for example?  Some people leave it on all the time, making the atmosphere around them always potentially intrusive.

Others have talk radio on continually, or programs featuring music. Some cannot go outside for a walk without being wired for sound. Or they will chatter on a cell phone while hurrying to their next destination.

Many modern Americans are in thrall to their computer. Always turned on, this marvelous machine produces its own noise that can act like a drug. Movies, rap singers, news reports – all come tumbling out and cloud our minds with a surfeit of information.

It’s awfully hard to get away from this environment dominated by electronic devices. They make themselves indispensable to us. Getting along without them on any given day comes to seem like a thoroughly unacceptable deprivation.

But noise of this sort has profound disadvantages that we can too easily ignore. All-sound-all-the-time blocks the spirit from making its presence felt inside us. How can anyone cherish interior richness when there is always such din outside?

I realize that, for not a few people, the sound becomes a kind of white noise. It remains in the background of their consciousness, a presence hardly attended to. You can ask them what’s on and they might not have any idea.

For many, an environment marked by sound brings reassurance and comfort. For those left alone, especially, a talk show host can provide the sense that someone is there. At times when we need cheering up, we can all find support in music or a comedy routine that speaks to us. We all need to be distracted from ourselves from time to time.

Perhaps for those of us who have become addicted to noise it would be unrealistic to go cold turkey and shut off all our sources of sound. Going on a TV fast or a radio vacation might prove extreme. No longer would I want to keep silence for eight consecutive days, as I was required to do each year during the time of my spiritual training.

But shutting down television, radio, cell phone, computer and other noise producing devices once in a while could prove a relief. It could draw us away from the clamor of the world and enable us to confront ourselves.

More positively, it could introduce us to a whole new world, that of our own spirit. There we might taste a peace of soul previously unknown. This might not happen all at once but we might be taking the first steps in the garden of peace.

If we have a solid spiritual tradition to draw upon, it is not hard to find strong backing for such a move. In mine, the season of Lent is a time for making this kind of discovery. For Jewish people, the time of Yom Kippur provides motivation for moving in this direction as does every Sabbath, and for Muslims, Ramadan, recently ended, also offers rich incentives. And, of course, other great spiritual traditions such as those adhered to by Buddhists and Hindu offer their own rewards.

But those who do not relate to any such tradition, experimentation with silence can prove similarly rewarding. That helps explain why so many Americans love retreats, either the do-it-yourself variety or those organized by churches, monasteries and other established groups.

To practice silence is to strike a blow for freedom. It puts you on the pathway of discovery, revealing inner riches you did not realize you have. Talk with a friend who has just been on a retreat and almost invariably you will find out what a freeing experience it was.

But to taste some of this you do not need to go to a retreat house. You can stay home and find some of the same new freedom. If you dare to impose silence, for even a short time, on the noises that confine us as if with metal curtains, you may be on your way to a more satisfying experience of daily life.

Richard Griffin