On top of a small mountain in the middle of lush rainforest, there's a simple brick building. Its floor is uneven slate, its walls are bare. A large window stretches across one side of it, looking out over the bush, reports the ABC’s Life Matters.
Mother Abbess Hilda Scott OSB (second from left) with Sisters from Jamberoo Abbey. (PHOTO: ABC/Supplied)
Just before 5am, the 24 people who live here begin to stir. There are whispers of scuffling feet, tinkling cutlery and other gentle sounds of busy-ness.
What isn't audible is the sound of anyone talking.
This is Jamberoo Abbey, a monastery that is home to a community of Benedictine nuns living largely in silence.
Abbess Hilda Scott has lived here for 30 years. She says the silence is "an extremely significant part of our life".
"Indeed, our life wouldn't be possible without it. It's essential to our way of living," she says.
The Abbey is a haven of silence in a noisy world. (PHOTO: ABC/Supplied).
By removing most of the speaking from her life, she's experienced a clearing of the mind. In that space, she says new thoughts emerge – and old ones become clearer.
"Silence is not just an absence of noise," Hilda says.
"You begin to hear things that only silence can reveal to you. You begin to hear the movement of your own heart. You begin to hear your own motivations."
For Hilda and her community, silence is closely connected with prayer and with a continual communication with something that is "deep".
She says it's a way of life that is "not about us personally" but "for the rest of the world too".
"On our mountain at Jamberoo, there we are trying to live a deeper life. We believe while we’re trying to do that, then something's being breathed into the world that hopefully makes a difference."
She acknowledges that people have different ideas of God, including that there is no God at all.
But she says anyone can benefit from adopting more silence in their life, and from striving for a connection to something bigger than one's self.
She suggests finding a small moment every day in which to experience silence.
"For five minutes, every day, just five minutes, give yourself a time when there isn't any noise," Hilda says.
"Don't turn the radio on the minute you get into the car.
"Go and stand in your backyard, and listen to everything that's going on around you."
She says once you start to allow for small moments of silence in your life, "you begin to crave more and more".
"And you begin to crave the clarity of life that comes with it."
This is an excerpt of a feature article By Anna Kelsey-Sugg and Bec Zajac for Life Matters on the ABC website. See the full story here.