We would like to thank you, our amazing Friends of Silence, for supporting the resilience of our humble ministry. In February we made an additional appeal so that we could continue to send the Letter in these difficult times. Your response was generous, heartfelt, and astonishing. We are deeply grateful.
The little orphan and I walked down the mountain to the city to buy shoes. She slipped out of her small rubber sandals into a new pair, carefully counted 45 rupees (less than one US dollar) into the shopkeeper's hand, and walked away.
"Wait! " I called, as I reached for the discarded shoes. "You've forgotten your old sandals. "
She glanced back at me, "No, leave them," she firmly replied. "I only need one pair. Leave them for someone who has none. "
When we're old, our lives become the sum of all whom we have loved. It is important not to waste anyone. One task of living out the last half of life is excavating and recovering all of those whom we loved the first half. Thus, the recovery of lost loves becomes an important way in which the past affects the present.
~ from AGING WELL by George E. Vaillant in "Spirituality & Health" - Fall 2001
Love is the principle of action, not a quality of behavior. We cannot learn unconditional love. To love unconditionally, we must become Love. And love is the natural outcome of union with the Inner Self or Soul.
~ from BODY OF TIME, SOUL OF ETERNITY by Jerry Thomas
Julia Butterfly Hill spent 738 days 180' high in a 200' redwood estimated to be 1,000 years old. One day, through her prayers, an overwhelming amount of love started flowing through her, filling up the dark hole that threatened to consume her. She suddenly realized that what she was feeling was the love of the Earth, the love of Creation.
"Everyday we, as a species, do so much to destroy Creation's ability to give us life. But the Creation continues to do everything in its power to give us life anyway. And that is true love."
“Is there enough silence for the Word to be heard?”
DEEP PEACE be with you in the inner Silence of your heart-prayer, dear friends! In this new year, may we continually be awakened to the Inner Light which shines through the darkness of fear and ignorance. Thus, we will radiate the LoveConsciousness that we are — albeit all too often unacknowledged — and where we are in harmony with the joy of our soul’s creative Work toward true enlightenment. Bask in the light of your times in the blessed Silence! Awaken and shine!
The Light that flows through your system is Universal Energy. It is the Light of the Universe. You give Light form. What you feel, what you think, how you behave, what you value and how you live your life reflect the way you are shaping the light that is flowing through you. They are thought forms, the feeling forms and the outer forms that you have given to Light. They reflect the configurations of your personality, your space-time being.
. . A Baby's cry shatters barriers women, men of every creed, culture, race gaze across the rubbled walls in wonder finding every face luminous with godliness!
Light is knowledge; where there is no knowledge, there is darkness. Light is the presence of day, where things can be seen and appreciated. Light is the power of Love, the presence of life that is sustaining and nurturing. … Become the light of the world — the loving light. Do everything in your power to let your light shine.
When love has carried us above and beyond all things, into the Divine Dark, we receive in peace the Incomprehensible Light, enfolding us and penetrating us. What is this Light, if it be not a contemplation of the Infinite, and an intuition of Eternity? We behold that which we are, and we are that which we behold; because our thought, life and being are uplifted in simplicity and made one with the Divine Truth which is God.
Soul gifts are the means through which we manifest our individual sparts of divine light. By practicing our gifts with wisdom, love, and compassion, we can contribute to a spiritual renaissance: one in which our creativity reflects the true light of divinity. This renaissance can remake the world.
Look at this window: it is nothing but a hole in the wall, but because of it the whole room is full of light. So when the faculties are empty, the heart is full of light. Being full of light it becomes an influence by which others are secretly transformed.
In the hollows of quiet places we may meet, the quiet places where is neither moon nor sun, but only the light of amber and pale gold that comes from the Hills of the Heart.
To acknowledge the Sacred within is humbling. One's ego portrays itself as the captain of its separate destiny, like an intrepid explorer, seeing things and naming them for the first time. Ego doesn't care for the idea that MY hunger for love, MY grief, and MY thankfulness are not only mine but also God's in me. As our egos die into Love, we see that our personal stories are transparent to an infinitely larger story within us. Suffering "in God" is allowing our small stories to be like icons, transmitting a Great Light.
~ from REBECCA: A Father's Journey by Robert A. Jonas
What heals one soul, searches another soul, what comforts one, drives another to the brink of darkness; and all the while the Light gives each soul what it is calling forth. No one can withstand the Word of Truth echoing through the corridors of the soul. The Light is searching, healing, self-revealing; thus in the Light clouded conditions are revealed, self-conscious fears loosened.
In the seed, the genes whisper: stretch out for the light and seek the dark. And the tree seeks the light, it stretches out for the dark and the more darkness it finds, the more light it uncovers.
If we allow silence to open up within, we shall see the gate and be free to open it. The gate that silence opens up within us leads to light. Light exposes us with an almost merciless radiance and, in the exposure, reveals the beauty of the real.
Grandma smiles at her. "The light has not departed from you. Never turn from the knowledge of it, little piece of my heart."
"Oh, let me come to you."
"If you were to come to me, a sliver of light would be absent from the earth. You are sent down into the cold dark world to bring it light, though you are but a reflection. In many times and many places you will not see the light that you bring, for it is hidden from your eyes so that others may receive it."
