The Discipline Of Silence According To Pythagoras

The discipline of silence according to Pythagoras aimed to shape a more reflective mind through self-control of the word.  Through this type of ascetic practice, the sage of the Crotona school taught hundreds of men and women that only when we abstract from the sensible world, we can make contact with our own self and thus achieve authentic wisdom.

Pythagoras of Samos introduced this principle to the Western world more than 2,500 years ago. The famous Greek mathematician and philosopher had spent two decades of his life in Egypt learning under the tutelage of various hierophants in Thebes and Memphis. Later, he went to Babylon to study astrology and the principles of karma and meditation.

All these acquired knowledge helped him to create his famous school in Crotona, which had only one rule when it came to allowing access to any student: that he previously spent five years in rigorous silence. For those who already had a calm and focused personality, “just” two years was enough.

Writings by other philosophers of that period indicate that more than 200 students came to this center, men and women who yearned to know all the mysteries and fabulous wisdoms that could be acquired in the School of Pythagoras. Now, if there is something that we all know, it is that, at present, silence is not exactly common in educational centers.

We have somehow lost a valuable lesson that Pythagoras himself left us in his day: through silence we learn to discipline ourselves.

The discipline of silence according to Pythagoras, what does it consist of?

The basic principle that governs the discipline of silence according to Pythagoras starts from an essential fact. For the wise man of the school, the most difficult thing for us to control people is the language. This part of our organism was, in his opinion, the main cause of personal problems and tragedies as well as that channel through which we bring suffering to our own lives.

In books such as those written by Thomas Stanley, the first historian of philosophy, he points out that Empedocles, a politician from the 5th century BC. C, pointed out that if humanity were able to follow the lessons of Pythagoras, we would be a more noble society. What’s more, he even came to define Pythagoras himself as a figure who seemed to have accumulated twenty lives in his being.

To him we owe pure mathematics, the term “philosophy” and the creation of that school of Crotona, which would later serve as a model for the creation of modern universities. At that institution, students were introduced to scientific and philosophical instruction, as well as music and astronomy. However, in order to access such knowledge, they first had to be “purified.” Such a rite of passage is carried out as follows.

The harsh discipline of silence

The discipline of silence according to Pythagoras required that every student spend 5 years of rigorous silence (two if he was a person of temperate and serene character). In this way and, according to his own words, the human soul could return to its own home to detach itself from any external artifice or object.

• Disciplining the tongue was the only way to quiet the mind, the needs of the body, and the sufferings that made up the soul.
• Also, unlike other later Greek mathematicians, we have no written book about Pythagoras. He did not write anything because he did not want to bind himself to the written word. He wished that his knowledge resided only in the minds of his students, those who had already been purified through the test of silence.

• Thus, when a student took the step to perform this rite of passage, he was considered an  Acoustici. When he passed that test, he was already a Mathematici.
• Silence among the Pythagoreans was essential. When a student reached that level, he achieved a “transmigration” of his thought. In this way, he could  better understand the hidden cosmogony of nature, numbers, art, or any kind of wisdom.

How to apply the discipline of silence according to Pythagoras today

We are aware that few of us can fulfill the discipline of silence according to Pythagoras as it was formulated in his day. Taking a rigorous vow of silence for five years is not something that everyone can or wants to carry out. However, studies such as those carried out in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School (United States) show us something important.

If we were able to maintain rigorous silence for half an hour to an hour a day, we would enjoy a healthier brain, less stressed, a more focused mind and a better state of mind.

Therefore, it never hurts to adapt this suggestion with other recommendations that Pythagoras of Samos himself gave us at the time on the subject of health and well-being:

• Being in contact with sunlight, following the cycles of nature.
• Allow each day at least one hour of silence.
• Take care of the diet (in the Crotona school the consumption of meat was avoided).
• Regular exercise
• Have enriching conversations.
• Carry out creative practices.

To conclude, as we can see the discipline of silence according to Pythagoras is like its own figure, a legacy from which to learn, reflect and inspire ourselves. Lessons such as those contained in those phrases he addressed to his students are therefore worth remembering: silence is the first stone in the temple of wisdom.