SILENCE, the pure objective awareness of being, is our "way without words." It opens us up to our deepest spiritual awareness. Silence is fertile soil. What we receive from this rich ground depends on what we put into it... seeds that we ourselves plant in our inmost silence. People who remain unconscious about their own spiritual life seem like irresponsible farmers: they devalue the land entrusted to their care.

Inner stillness is perhaps our greatest ally. Gandhi once wrote that silence brings "the highest potency and is self-acting power." Prayer, meditation, reading scripture (which is, to me, alive with silence, embedded with sacred codes about our deepest mind) -- even quiet walks -- become healing acts. These quiet the world's noises and provide clues about who we are and our healthiest directions.

Direct experience suggests that contemplation and deep self-forgetfulness draw us into God, in whom we have our life and being. This magnetic, purifying silence has healing power: it fuses time -- brings past, present and future to a single still and perfect point. Here healing (what we call a miracle) is automatic. This stillpoint is love, and only love heals.