Protecting Silence and Solitude
Internally we may see that we’ve been like someone whose whole life has been spent looking at a television screen, except that we don’t have any control over what channel we’re watching and what advertisements we’re forced to listen to. All of this “noise” is just there, and we cannot separate from
Kabir Helminski • The Mysterion: Rumi and the Secret of Becoming Fully Human
this ineffable reality that the word “silence” points to is not something that we need to acquire, like a piece of software we can install in the computer of our spiritual lives. It is pointing to something that is already within us, grounding all mental processes, whether precise, disciplined thinking or chaotic mental obsession.
Martin Laird • Into the Silent Land: A Guide to the Christian Practice of Contemplation
Illich is encouraging a silence grounded in humility, a silence that arises not from a desire to be heard but from a desire to hear and to understand.
L. M. Sacasas • Impossible Silences - The Convivial Society
It’s only by taking myself away from clutter and distraction that I can begin to hear something out of earshot and recall that listening is much more invigorating than giving voice to all the thoughts and prejudices that anyway keep me company twenty-four hours a day. And it’s only by going nowhere—by sitting still or letting my mind relax—that I f
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