The capacity for silence

The capacity for silence — a deep creative awareness of one's inner truth — distinguishes us as human.

The simplicity of willing one thing

Monks call us tothe simplicity of willing one thing: in a culture intent on a high standard of living, they insist on a high standard of life.Achievement versus grace: the exposure of the emptiness of fullness for the fullness of emptiness. The heart of this subversion is in planting within a person the appetite for silence. And once planted, once one tastes silence, and listening, and stopping, and being flooded by a Depth beyond all words ... once you do nothing, say nothing, think nothing, but just let yourself BE ... if you ever let this happen, it's all over for you. From then on, everything else seems insane.

November 2000 (Vol. XIII, No. 10)

Heartfelt BLESSINGS OF THANKSGIVING, dear friends! As we move into a season filled with holidays and celebration, may we remember to pause each day for renewal and to feast with the Divine Guest on soul nourishment served in the Silence.

I need time to listen

I need time to listen, to examine, and to confess ... to listen for the Voice, if for no other reason that so I will recognize it more clearly in the ways it speaks into the noise and bustle of the life I lead. The silence that I seek must be nurtured until it lives in me no matter where I am at the moment. The silence I seek must be something more than the absence of the numbing noise and debilitating detail of life in our society. It must be a solitude that is transcendent, a stillness that can be found in the midst of noise, a silence that is portable.

~ from LIVING PRAYER by Robert Benson
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A day filled with noise can be a day of silence

A day filled with noise and voices can be a day of silence, If the noises become for us the echo of the presence of God. When we speak of ourselves and are filled with ourselves, we leave silence behind. When we repeat the intimate words of God that are within us, our silences remain intact.

~ from POUSTINIA by Catherlne de Hueck Doherty
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A quiet which pervades every particle of this world

SILENCE: an energy which extends beyond the furthest reaches of the universe — and never vanishes, a quiet which pervades every particle of this world, and glides through the blackness of the great harbor by night, and speaks differently by day. Speech is the body of silence: the word floats up from silence; it flows back into silence. The word of relationship and the quiet of the heart are inseparable — like love and the silence from which it is born, and the rest to which it returns, unceasingly.

~ from DANCING MADLY BACKWARDS by Paul Marechal
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We have to work at silence

Quiet ... silence ... tranquility. Those are qualities of life seldom enjoyed today. Incorporating silence into daily living is both possible and desirable. But in order to make silence a presence rather than an absence, we have to work at it. The effort can result in greater introspection, spiritual sensitivity and creativity. No matter how busy life becomes, anyone can discover occasions each month, each week, and even each day, to create nourishing silence.

~ from "Give Yourself the Silent Treatment" by Victor M. Parachin with thanks to Charlotte Miller
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To speak from the heart, we must listen to the speech of the heart

The spaciousness of silence nurtures new sensitivities, new sense-abilities. During this phase of the spiritual journey, the emphasis will not be directly on speaking but on perceiving: on SEEING instead of just looking, on LISTENING instead of just hearing. Eyes and ears are not sufficient... To speak from the heart, we must listen to the speech of the heart, which grows articulate in being moved and is animated by the speech of the world. The eyes of the heart do not find nouns in the world, but verbs. The seeing and listening of the heart enable us to appreciate the world and all it phenomena as animate. We must simply become quiet enough, heartfully sense-able enough, to perceive and inwardly honor this silent speech of the world.

~ from THE SPEECH OF THE GRAIL by Linda Sussman
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No longer trusting entirely in language to contain reality

The solitary life, being silent, clears away the smoke-screen of words that we lay down between our mind and things... Words stand between silence and silence: between the silence of things and the silence of our own being, between the silence of the world and the silence of God. When we have really met and known the world of silence, words to not separate us from the world nor from others, nor from God, nor from ourselves because we no longer trust entirely in language to contain reality.
~ from THOUGHTS IN SOLITUDE by Thomas Merton
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Silent and radiant people

I believe in the influence of silent and radiant people. Such people are rare. They, nevertheless, give savor to the world.
~ Marius Grout
Marius Grout silence

Why I make my home in the mountain forest

You ask why I make my home in the mountain forest,
And I smile, and am silent,
And even my soul remains quiet:
It lives in the other world
Which no one owns.
The peach trees blossom.
The water flows.
~ Li Po in THE ENLIGHTENED HEART by S. Mitchell
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Be a lover of silence

If you love truth, be a lover of silence. Silence, like the sunlight, will illuminate you in God, and will unite you to God. Love silence: it brings you a fruit that tongue cannot describe. In the beginning we have to force ourselves to be silent. But then there is born something that draws us to silence. May God give you an expression of this "something" that is born of silence. After a while, a certain sweetness is born in the heart, and you are drawn almost by force to remain in silence.

~ from TRUE PRAYER by Kenneth Leech
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Make sure your talk is an improvement on silence

A tourist spending the night in a small New England Town joined a group sitting on the porch of the general store.  After several vain attempts to start a conversation asked, "Is there a law against talking in this town."

"No law against it," said one old timer. We just like to make sure it's an improvement on silence."

~ thanks to Robert S. Bower
Anonymous silence

Too many words can alienate us from one another

I feel an increasing desire to be silent with friends. Words are important in bringing hearts together, but too many words can alienate us from one another. Not every event has to be told, not every idea has to be shared. Once an atmosphere of mutual trust is present we can be silent together and let God be the One who speaks, gently and softly.

~ from THE PRIMACY OF THE HEART by Henri Nouwen thanks to A. Vernilye
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When we first try to sit in silence

It is a paradox that we encounter so much internal noise when we first try to sit in silence.

~ Gunilla Norris
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Only in silence the word

Only in silence the word,
only in dark the light,
only in dying life.

~ Ursula Le Guin
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What does silence open?

Silence open the inner fount from which the word arises.

~ Romano Guardini
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The act of inner attention

The act of inner attention seems to create a medieval walled garden. It is hedged about with silence and stillness, but silence and stillness are not the heart of it. At the center is a fountain and we see that everything has arranged itself around the water playing in the sunlight: here is the source of the timelessness that is everywhere apparent. The more deeply we enter, the more the fountain soars above; awe and wonder claim us.

It asks that we learn how to live, to make a particular path and fullness out of the spirit's eternity and silence.

~ from THE LIGHT INSIDE THE DARK by John Tarrant
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I need time to listen

I need time to listen, to examine, and to confess ... to listen for the Voice, if for no other reason that so I will recognize it more clearly in the ways it speaks into the noise and bustle of the life I lead. The silence that I seek must be nurtured until it lives in me no matter where I am at the moment. The silence I seek must be something more than the absence of the numbing noise and debilitating detail of life in our society. It must be a solitude that is transcendent, a stillness that can be found in the midst of noise, a silence that is portable.

A day filled with noise can be a day of silence

A day filled with noise and voices can be a day of silence, If the noises become for us the echo of the presence of God. When we speak of ourselves and are filled with ourselves, we leave silence behind. When we repeat the intimate words of God that are within us, our silences remain intact.

A quiet which pervades every particle of this world

SILENCE: an energy which extends beyond the furthest reaches of the universe — and never vanishes, a quiet which pervades every particle of this world, and glides through the blackness of the great harbor by night, and speaks differently by day. Speech is the body of silence: the word floats up from silence; it flows back into silence. The word of relationship and the quiet of the heart are inseparable — like love and the silence from which it is born, and the rest to which it returns, unceasingly.

We have to work at silence

Quiet ... silence ... tranquility. Those are qualities of life seldom enjoyed today. Incorporating silence into daily living is both possible and desirable. But in order to make silence a presence rather than an absence, we have to work at it. The effort can result in greater introspection, spiritual sensitivity and creativity. No matter how busy life becomes, anyone can discover occasions each month, each week, and even each day, to create nourishing silence.

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