Reading Archive (Being Silent)

Pronounce a Silent Blessing

Barbara Brown Taylor

"It is forbidden to taste of the pleasures of this world without a blessing." --The Talmud I think that the best way to discover what pronouncing blessings is all about is to pronounce a ...

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23K reads, 14 comments

Silence

Jean Klein

Silence is our real nature. What we are fundamentally is only silence. Silence is free from beginning and end. It was before the beginning of all things. It is causeless. Its greatness lies in the ...

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21K reads, 28 comments

You Cannot Capture Silence, It Captures You

Richard Rohr

For me, the two correctives of all spirituality are silence and service. If either of those is missing, it is not true, healthy spirituality. Without silence, we do not really experience our experienc...

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21K reads, 13 comments

Opposite Of Meditation Is Not Action, It's Reaction

Richard Rohr

It seems like our society is at a low point in terms of how we talk about challenging, controversial topics within our political discourse and even our spiritual reflections. I believe the only way th...

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20K reads, 14 comments

The Mystery of Silence

Dorothy Hunt

Silence cannot really be described. It is not the absence of sound. It makes it possible to notice sound. It is still, but its stillness is constantly moving. It is nothing, but a nothing filled with ...

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18K reads, 8 comments

Unconditioned Stillness

Rick Hanson

Stillness, a sense of the unchanging, is all around.  For example, it’s not the ultimate stillness, but there is that lovely feeling when the house is quiet and you’re sitting in p...

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16K reads, 8 comments

Embarrassed by Silence

Mitch Albom

He enters the classroom, sits down, doesn't say anything. He looks at us, we look at him. At first, there are a few giggles, but Morrie only shrugs, and eventually a deep silence falls and we begin...

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11K reads

Art of Awareness

Wilfred Peterson

Thoreau wrote: "Only that day dawns to which we are awake." The art of awareness is the art of learning how to wake up to the eternal miracle of life with its limitless possibilities. It is rising...

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10K reads

Creativity of Silence

Dada

We can discover a new beauty of life in silence. When once you see that beauty, you will not be interested in the agitated cravings of the mind. You will see the limitations of your desires and wishf...

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8K reads

Living Inward

Sri Aurobindo

To be and to be fully is Nature's aim in us; but to be fully is to be wholly conscious of one's being. This movement of going inward and living inward is a difficult task to lay upon the normal consci...

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7K reads

Seeds of Real Action

Dada

Why is it that the mind cannot be in the present? The mind moves on and on because it just cannot be quiet. We do not really need anything else in order to be peaceful and free in the present, but ...

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5K reads

Nowness Connects Everything

Phil Jackson

[Meditation] is what I do to start every day. It's a discipline and a setting of priorities. I'm not going to allow my mind to create situations, expectations and attitudes that may or may not be tru...

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4K reads

Dinner in Silence

Elaine St. James

[ Five or six weeks ago, we started to eat the post-meditation dinner in silence. Here is a related thought on mindful eating ... ] "As a personal or family ritual, have a meal in silence from tim...

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4K reads

A Human Society

Vimala Thakar

A self-centered person can never look at anything in life, a self-centered person cannot get related with other human beings. He is so busy with his own self, his ego, his likes, his dislikes, his th...

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4K reads

Wherever you are Be there

Jim Rohn

One of the major reasons why we fail to find happiness or to create unique lifestyle is because we have not yet mastered the art of being. While we are home our thoughts are still absorbed with solv...

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4K reads