What is noble silence? (Kolita Sutra)

Koyomi (animation); Dhr. Seven (ed.), Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Kolita Sutra: "Kolita's Discourse" (SN 21.1, PTS: S ii 273, CDB i 713) based on Ven. Thanissaro (trans.), Wisdom Quarterly

Black Kolita = Ven. Great Moggallana (wiki)

Thus have I heard. On one occasion the Blessed One was staying near Sāvatthī in Jeta's Grove in Anāthapiṇḍika's monastery.

There Ven. Mahā Moggallāna [known also as Kolita] addressed the Buddhist monastics (wandering ascetics), "Friends, meditators!"

"Yes, friend," they responded.

Great Moggallāna then spoke: "Friends, once when I was withdrawn in meditative seclusion, this train of thought came to mind: '"Noble silence, noble silence,"' it is said, 'but what is noble silence?'

"The following thought then occurred: 'A meditator, stilling directed thoughts and evaluations [1], enters and abides in the second meditative absorption (jhāna), which is accompanied by rapture and pleasant sensation born of concentration, unification of mind free of directed thoughts and evaluations, with internal assurance. This is called noble silence.'

So with the stilling of directed thoughts and evaluations, I entered and abided in the second meditative absorption accompanied by rapture and pleasant sensation born of concentration, unification of mind free of directed thoughts and evaluations, with internal assurance.

"While I abided in that [mental] dwelling, I was assailed by perceptions and [acts of] attention connected with directed thought.

The Buddha's famous black disciple, Ven. Kolita

"Then the Blessed One came to me through his [psychic] power and said:

"'Moggallāna, Moggallāna, brahmana [Brahmin], be not heedless about noble silence. Establish the mind in noble silence. Unify the mind in noble silence. Concentrate the mind in noble silence.'

"At a later time, with the stilling of directed thoughts and evaluations, I entered and abided in the second absorption accompanied by rapture and pleasant sensation born of concentration, unification of mind free of directed thoughts and evaluations, with internal assurance.

"So when one, speaking rightly, says of another, 'A disciple attained to greatness of direct knowledge through the assistance of the Teacher,' it is of me that one rightly speaking says that."

• NOTE 1: According to MN 44, directed thought and evaluation (vitakka and vicara or "applied and sustained attention") constitute verbal fabrications or formations, which is why the second meditative absorption (jhāna) — the level of purified calm-concentration in which these fabrications are calmed — is called "noble silence."