How easily silence slips away

I am grateful for the Friends of Silence newsletter for allowing me a small moment to bring myself back to center, into the silence where all is as it should be. It's amazingly simple how we may find solace. It's even more amazing that, once having discovered this simple truth, I could so easily have allowed it to slip away. Thank you for providing my lesson today, in reminding me to stand in the silence of myself, connect with Source, and remember the importance of expressing my gratitude, internally as well as externally.

I weave a silence

I weave a silence on my lips.
I weave a silence into my mind.
I weave a silence within my heart.
I close my ears to distractions.
I close my eyes to attractions.
I close my heart to temptations.

Calm me as You stilled the storm.
Still me, keep me from harm.
Let all tumult within me cease.
Enfold me in Your peace.

Silence and shout that nearly cracked the universe

The venerated Chinese teacher Lin-chi, who died in the year 866, once interrupted the silence with a shout that was said to have nearly cracked the universe.... Breaking the silence can sometimes be a shortcut to cracking open the myteries of the universe. But for now, I'm quite content to sit here quietly. There is only the infrequent shout of a distant ocean wave to rise abo ve the regulated whisper of my own breathing. Soon, even these sounds fade.

Silenced and shout that nedarly cracked the universe

The venerated Chinese teacher Lin-chi, who died in the year 866, once interrupted the silence with a shout that was said to have nearly cracked the universe.... Breaking the silence can sometimes be a shortcut to cracking open the mysteries of the universe. But for now, I'm quite content to sit here quietly. There is only the infrequent shout of a distant ocean wave to rise above the regulated whisper of my own breathing. Soon, even these sounds fade.

Silence is the doorway to the presence of God

We say silence is golden. Golden as in exquisite, valuable, rare. In the spiritual life, silence is even more: the doorway to the presence of God. But in today's noisy world, where is the holy quiet of silence to be found? Can you hear the silence in your life?

There a two silences

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.

Silence is the blended note of then thousand things

The silence is all there is. It is the alpha and the omega. It is God's brooding over the face of the waters; it is the blended note of the ten thousand things, the whine of wings. You take a step in the right direction to pray to this silence, and even to address the prayer to "World." Distinctions blur. Quiet your tents. Pray without ceasing.

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