silence

Befriend the Silence

Be still and know I AM.

If you would know deeper dimensions of yourself and the Divine, my friends, befriend the Silence.

Friendship with Silence

The further one travels the spiritual path toward Home ... the more precious is one's relationship with Silence. Though spiritual disciplines may change over the course of one's journey, the one discipline which seems constant, though it ever deepens, is the friendship with Silence.

October 1994 (Vol. VII, No. 9)

BLESSED BE in the Sacred Silence, friends!
John Main

Life in the dimension of Spirit is a mystery rooted in the joy of being. The wonderful beauty of prayer is that the opening of our heart is as natural as the opening of a flower. To let a flower open and bloom it is only necessary to let it be. So if we simply are, if we become and remain still and silent, our heart cannot but be open; the Spirit cannot but pour through into our whole being. It is this that we have been created for.

Jeshua

In silence will you hear Me;
In silence will you come to know Me.
Listen well.

Sr. Janet Mother Maribel of Wantage

Silence is not a thing we make; it is something into which we enter. It is always there. We talk about keeping silence. We keep only that which is precious. Silence is precious, for it is of God. In silence all God's acts are done; in silence alone can God's voice be heard, God's word spoken.

Persian saying

Oh silence, thou art an inestimable bliss,
Thou coverest the follies of the foolish
And givest inspiration to the wise!

F. Vaughan, R. Walsh A Gift of Peace

There is a silence into which the world cannot intrude. There is an ancient peace you carry in your heart and have not lost. Peace is a natural heritage of spirit. Peace and understanding go together and never are found alone. Strength and innocence are not in conflict, but naturally live in peace. In this quiet state alone is strength and power. Here can no weakness enter, for here is not attack and therefore no illusion. ABIDE IN PEACE

Meister Eckhart
There is nothing so much like God in all the universe as silence.
Jerry Wright

The further one travels the spiritual path toward Home ... the more precious is one's relationship with Silence. Though spiritual disciplines may change over the course of one's journey, the one discipline which seems constant, though it ever deepens, is the friendship with Silence.

Andrew Harvey Hidden Journey

Another silence began, rich and profound. I looked at the next question on my list and laughed. "You work in silence. This is because silence is the ultimate and final initiation, isn't it?" "Yes." Ma adjusted the bangle on her right wrist. "Why is silence powerful?" "God is silent. Everything comes out of silence. In silence more work can be done. the true experience of Bliss is without words." The silence returned, this time ringing with her sound.

Evelyn Underhill

Going out from the silence, teach me to be more alert, humble, expectant than I have been in the past: ever ready to encounter You in quiet, homely ways: in every appeal to my compassion, every act of unselfish love which shows up and humbles my imperfect love, may I recognize You still walking through the world. Give me that grace of simplicity which alone can receive your Mystery.

Abhishiktananda

The only means of authentic spiritual communication is the interior speech which is uttered in the silence from which the Word emerged, and which is only heard in the silence.

Unknown

Be still and know I AM.

If you would know deeper dimensions of yourself and the Divine, my friends, befriend the Silence.

Rumi

A Great Silence overcomes me,
and I wonder why I ever thought
to use language.

Patricia Waugh

I sit and stare
Into the where
Of within me
At the world of words and sounds and sights,
Peoples and places and empty spaces,
And under it all
A small oasis of Silence
Where time ceases to be
And I am part of eternity.

Marc Hammer The Jeshua Letters

In Silence is perfect Rest,
and here the ever-so-faint sound
of the Comforter's voice
rings as notes struck from the crystal glass.
Certainty resides there,
and there alone.

...I bid you come to the Silence,
that the Voice may finally be heard.
Here marks the gentle turning point
in your long Journey.
Herein is the way home rediscovered ...
Come into Silence
let the journey end.

Caroline Stephan Light Arising

Inwardness and true quietness appear to be but two aspects of the same thing -- of a "truly centered" life. In the innermost religion of life there is a perpetual calm; perturbations and excitements belong to the comparatively superficial part of our own nature. In cleaving to the Center we cannot but be still; to be inwardly still is to be aware of the Center.

Georg Feuerstein Sacred Paths

Sacred silence engenders stillness. It IS stillness. And that stillness opens up the dimension of spiritual existence -- that luminous world that awaits our discovery as soon as we redirect our attention from external things to our own radiant depths... Silence is not merely a discipline; rather, it is primarily a state of being. It is in, through, and as silence that we discover our authentic identity, the Self.

Learn how to wait,

Learn how to wait, how to be silent, how to befriend the dark ... thus, do we prepare to be creative. There is a waiting, a silence and a darkness in all birthing. Heart's winter is already a filling womb... For the font of inspiration and newness to keep welling up within us, old wounds and our shadow side must be encountered and owned. So that creative love may flow in and out, each heart, one day, must be broken.

Keeping myself ready to hear the voice when it comes out of silence

One morning, as a fire flamed back of a handsome eighteenth-century glass screen, I looked for the silence underneath the explosions of the fire... By now I was adept at finding the silence wherever it was. As I settled into it this morning, letting it fill my ears, mind and being, I heard the words: "I'll never abandon you, no matter what you do." ... Once I heard it, I learned to go and find, first the silence and then to wait for the voice. It comes OUT of the silence. It doesn't always come. But somehow I know it will again. And this knowledge has changed my existence. What I have to do, I now understand, is keep myself ready to hear it when it does.

Silence is where we learn to listen

Silence is where we learn to listen, where we learn to see. Holding silence, being held by stillness, people go alone to the wilderness "to stop and see", to renew their vision, to enter the mind ground, to hear the truth, to return to the knowledge of the extensiveness of self and the truth of no self. One seeks solitude to know relatedness. There the unknown, the unarticulated, the unpredictable, the uncontrollable appear as protectors of the present.

As I befriend the silent darkness within me

As I experience God as the source of my life, a longing wells up within me, a longing to grow older together with the living fountain of my life. Upon entering into myself, I find God. By coming to discover my original self, I come to God. As I befriend the silent darkness within me, I become more open to the hidden and mysterious dimension of myself. There, as I rest in the darkness, I uncover myself as a gift from God. I need to take up that gift and walk gently and compassionately with the sacredness that I am...I need to care for the precious gift that I am, preserve it, and hallow the ground from which it springs.

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