stillness

In the stillness, empty spaces occur and new possibilities are searching their way to the surface of the mind. A connection is made, new relationships are formed and new patterns emerge. This process of being still and moving at the same time to something new is the way the experience of metaphoric or creative thinking comes about in our minds.

In this process images that are far apart become connected at a deep emotional level, and we feel a jolt of surprises.

As long as the soul is not still, there can be no vision. But when stillness has brought us into the presence of God, then another sort of silence, much more absolute, intervenes: the silence of a soul that is not only still and recollected, but which is overawed in an act of worship by God's presence.

When the whole consciousness is silent and tranquil, free from all becoming, which is spontaneity, then only does the immeasurable come into being. For, when the mind is still, reality, the indescribably, comes into being. So the mind must be simple, unburdened by belief, by ideation. And when there is stillness, when there is no desire, no longing, when the mind is absolutely quiet with a stillness that is not induced, then reality comes. And when that happens, it is a blessing.

Silence is fruitful only when it leads to interior peace and stillness.

Contemplation is a country whose center is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere.

You do not find it by travelling, but by standing still.

Silence is a directed stillness, which receives rather than acts.

Understand -- through the stillness,
Act -- out of the stillness,
Conquer -- in the stillness.

In order for the eye to perceive color, it must divest itself of all colors.

When you don't go deep into the inner stillness, you deprive Me.

In the Middle Ages people were well aware of the inexhaustible power that arises simply from sitting still... The inner quiet which arises when the body is motionless and in its best possible form can become the source of transcendental experience. By emptying ourselves of all those matters that normally occupy us, we become receptive to Greater Being. True enlightenment has the effect of so fundamentally affecting and shaking the whole person that they themselves, as well as their total physical existence in the world, is completely transformed.

In the tempestuous ocean of time and toil there are islands of stillness where humans may enter the harbor and reclaim their dignity. The sabbath is a designated day -- also a state of mind -- a time of detachment from things, instruments, practical affairs and the hurly-burly of life's struggles. In the sabbath state-of-mind we can seek attachment to the spirit, recapturing the goodness of our essential being.

Breathing is one internal function that the conscious mind can control with comparative ease. The effect of controlled breathing is almost like communication with all conscious parts of one's being saying to them, "Simmer down and listen; there is something beyond the turmoil". It is communication in action that often works when words merely go in one ear and out the other, not even changing the cognitive mind. In essence, the effect is to turn all the elements of our will toward stillness and waiting.