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We cannot expect answers from God after only five minutes of silence

J. Heinrich Arnold
July-August 1996 (Vol. IX, No. 7)

We cannot expect answers from God after only five minutes of silence... Meister Eckhart emphasized the importance of the listening heart that listens to God alone ... that God desires nothing more than a heart that detaches itself in silence from everything and turns and listens.

~ from DISCIPLESHIP by J. Heinrich Arnold
Discipleship
silence
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For those of us with a hunger to know the truth, painful emotions are like flags going up to say, "You're stuck!"... such uncomfortable feelings are messages that tell us to perk up and lean into a situation when we'd rather cave in and back away. When the flag goes up, we have an opportunity: we can stay with our painful emotion instead of spinning out. Staying is how we get the hang of gently catching ourselves when we're about to let resentment harden into blame, righteousness, or alienation. It's also how we keep from smoothing things over by talking ourselves into a sense of relief or inspiration...With practice, however, we learn to stay with a broken heart, with a nameless fear, with the desire for revenge. Sticking with uncertainty is how we learn to relax in the midst of chaos, how we learn to be cool when the ground beneath us suddenly disappears. We can bring ourselves back to the spiritual path countless times every day simply by exercising our willingness to rest in the uncertainty of the present moment — over and over again.

~ Pema Chödrön in COMFORTABLE WITH UNCERTAINTY
 
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