It is commonly considered rude to keep silent in the company of others, but voluntary silence connects rather than distances us from others whose individual differences temporarily fade away creating a shared feeling of harmony and oneness.
As your prayer and meditation become deeper, they will defend you from the perpetual assaults of the outer world. You will hear the busy hum of that world as a distant exterior melody, and know yourself to be in some way withdrawn from it. You have set a ring of silence between you and it; and behold! within the silence you are free.
~ from PRACTICAL MYSTICISM by Evelyn Underhill