Saturday, January 7, 2012

Making friends with silence

Artist: Vincent Van Gogh

Sometimes I think that the loveliest, wisest, most generous thing we can do for ourselves is to make friends with silence. I see much suffering taking place within and also surrounding those unfortunates who cannot tolerate the depth and richness of experience with true silence. Here are a few thoughts and observations:
Silence is exhilarating at first - as noise is - but there is a sweetness to silence outlasting exhilaration, akin to the sweetness of listening and the velvet of sleep.- Edward Hoagland
Not merely an absence of noise, Real Silence begins when a reasonable being withdraws from the noise in order to find peace and order in his inner sanctuary.- Peter Minard
Silence is as deep as eternity; speech, shallow as time. - Thomas Carlyle
Silence is the universal refuge, the sequel to all dull discourses and all foolish acts, a balm to our every chagrin, as welcome after satiety as after disappointment. - Henry David Thoreau
And then, of course, there is my favorite (and this has been said by many but it was first told me by Bishop Mark Dyer):

"Silence is the language of God; anything else is a bad translation."
~~~

3 comments:

  1. Silence can be scary because within silence is where the true self lies, but once one becomes friends with their true self then silence becomes all the things I see described here.
    Carolyn L.

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  2. That is a thoughtful observation, Carolyn. And it makes a lot of sense. Thank you.

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  3. I agree with Carolyn that silence can be scary, mostly because we are then faced with all of our own "mind stuff" and all that that implies...(such as beginning to DEAL with it).

    annie c

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