Friday, April 18, 2008

Becoming the silence

"Inner Silence"

Years ago, when I was living in Ireland, I spent some time house sitting for a priest friend of mine while she was on vacation. She had left out some tapes she thought I would be interested in and some of them were by John Main, the priest who was so influential in the fairly recent revival of Christian meditation. Here's something he said:

Now to tread the spiritual path we must learn to be silent. What is required of us is a journey into profound silence. . . Meditation is the way to silence, because it is the way of silence. . . I think what we all have to learn is that we do not have to create silence. The silence is there within us. What we have to do is to enter into it, to become silent, to become the silence. The purpose of meditation and the challenge of meditation is to allow ourselves to become silent enough to allow this interior silence to emerge. Silence is the language of the Spirit.

--John Main from Moment of Christ

2 comments:

  1. "The silence is there within us." I love this. Thank you.

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  2. What beautiful images you've posted for us the last few days, Ellie! I love the "Spring Rain" painting from Wednesday, and the rest here since, but that's my favourite, and I like your cat blogging picture at Meditation Matters tonight too.

    My Friday night meditation takes place in a hot bath, scented with sandalwood, after midnight. That's MY next thing. Thanks again.

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