In the Sahara one day, I climbed over a dune to descend into a deep bowl of sand. Sitting at the bottom I encountered for the first time absolute silence, stillness that is indivisible. For there are two silences: a silence can be no more than the absence of noise, it can be inert; or, at the other end of the scale, there is a nothingness that is infinitely alive, and every cell of the body can be penetrated and vivified by this second silence's activity.
...it is not the thing itself...that is the problem; but it is our clinging to the thing even
when it causes us, ourselves, and others mental or physical pain, which blinds us to a
bigger view and snowballs into more suffering. Ultimately, the challenge of letting go
becomes a spiritual act in some way: in many
spiritual traditions, surrender is the backbone, as
Mohammed says in the Qur'an, "True religion is
surrender." And so as we grasp at the beautiful red
leaf, we just might let it spin again in the autumn
wind, delighting in that tiny leaf-filled and empty
moment.