IMAGES
WORDS
SOLITUDE, STILLNESS AND SILENCE
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
True silence is the rest of the mind;
it is to the spirit what sleep is to the body,
nourishment and refreshment.
William Penn
Solitude is a silent storm that breaks down all
our dead branches; yet it sends our living roots
deeper into the living heart of the living earth.
Kahlil Gibran
Only in quiet waters do things mirror themselves undistorted.
Only in a quiet mind is adequate perception of the world.
Hans Margolius
We all have within us a center of stillness
surrounded by silence.
Dag Hammerskjold
To the mind that is still,
The whole universe surrenders.
Chuang Tzu
When I found I no longer had the
stamina to work long hours clearing the fallen limbs in the woods around my
house, I began to bring a lawn chair and a thermos with me. I still work in the
woods, but stop frequently to sit and have a cup of tea. I’ve identified birds I
didn’t know lived here and evidence that a bobcat shares the property. Since
I’ve slowed down some, I see things I never saw before and find that quiet
solitude is not lonely but nurturing, allowing my heart to open to the signs and
lessons of nature that surround me.
Sallirae Henderson
I learned.. . that inspiration does not come like a bolt,
nor is it kinetic, energetic, striving, but it comes to us slowly and quietly
and all the time, though we must regularly and every day give it a little chance
to start flowing, prime it with a little solitude and idleness.
Brenda Ueland
You need not leave your room. Remain sitting
at your
table and listen. You need not even listen, simply wait,
just learn to become quiet, and still, and solitary.
The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked.
It has no choice; it will roll in ecstasy at your feet.
Franz Kafka
I find there is a quality to being alone that is
incredibly
precious. Life rushes back into the void, richer, more
vivid, fuller than before. It is as if in parting one did
actually lose an arm. And then, like the starfish, one grows
it anew; one is whole again, complete and round--more whole,
even, than before, when other people had pieces of one.
Anne Morrow Lindbergh
True silence really means going deep
within yourself to that place
where nothing is happening, where you transcend time and space.
You go into a brand new dimension of nothingness. That's where
all the power is. That's your real home. That's where you really
belong, in deep Silence where there is no good or bad, no one
trying to achieve anything. Just being, pure being. . . . Silence is the
ultimate reality.
Robert Adams
Learn to get in touch with silence within
yourself and know that everything in this life has purpose. There are no
mistakes, no coincidences, all events are blessings given to use to learn from.
Elisabeth Kuebler-Ross
One of the greatest
sounds of them all--and
to me it is a sound--is
utter, complete silence.
Andre Kostelanetz