centered thoughts
February 1996
Silence is not merely the absence of sound. Silence implies a quieting, a stillness, a calmness approaching equilibrium. Every action we perform, either physically or mentally carries with it motion, sound, and sometimes noise that we become swept up in. This cacophony surrounds and envelopes our daily lives nowadays to such an extent that it may be difficult for us to hear the silent voice within, our inner or higher self, our inner god. -- PNT
If you meet on the way a man who knows, don't speak a word, don't keep silent! -- Zen Saying
There is nothing so much like God in all the universe as silence. -- Meister Eckhart
A heavy snowfall disappears into the sea. What silence! -- Folk Zen Saying
The sound stops short, the sense flows on. -- Old Chinese Saying
O Sabbath rest by Galilee!
O calm of hills above,
Where Jesus knelt to share with thee
The silence of eternity
Interpreted by love!
-- John Greenleaf Whittier
Let any true man go into silence; strip himself of all pretense, and selfishness, and sensuality, and sluggishness of soul; lift off thought after thought, passion after passion, till he reaches the inmost depth of all; remember how short a time and he was not at all; how short a time again, and he will not be here; open his window and look upon the night, how still its breath, how solemn its march, how deep its perspective, how ancient its forms of light; and think how little he knows except the perpetuity of God, and the mysteriousness of life: -- and it will be strange if he does not feel the Eternal Presence as close upon his soul as the breeze upon his brow; if he does not say, "O Lord, art thou ever near as this, and have I not known thee?" -- if the true proportions and the genuine spirit of life do not open on his heart with infinite clearness and show him the littleness of his temptations and the grandeur of his trust. He is ashamed to have found weariness in toil so light, and tears where there was no trial to the brave. He discovers with astonishment how small the dust that has blinded him, and from the height of a quiet and holy love looks down with incredulous sorrow on the jealousies and fears and irritations that have vexed his life. A mighty wind of resolution sets in strong upon him and freshens the whole atmosphere of his soul, sweeping down before it the light flakes of difficulty, till they vanish like snow upon the sea. He is imprisoned no more in a small compartment of time, but belongs to an eternity which is now and here. The isolation of his separate spirit passes away; and with the countless multitude of souls akin to God, he is but as a wave of his unbounded deep. He is at one with Heaven, and hath found the secret place of the Almighty. -- James Martineau
Silence thy thoughts and fix thy whole attention on thy Master whom yet thou dost not see, but whom thou feelest. -- H.P. Blavatsky
Men do not mirror themselves in running water -they mirror themselves in still water. -- Chuang Tzu
Great truth that transcends Nature does not pass from one being to another by way of human speech. Truth chooses Silence to convey her meaning to loving souls. -- Kahlil Gibran
Silence is the environment in which we may hear the "still small voice." -- David Cooper
He who knows does not speak. He who speaks does not know. -- Dao De Jing
Sometime silence is infinitely kindlier than speech. -- G de Purucker
Silence is the most potent form of work. -- Sri Ramana Maharshi