At the heart of each of us, whatever our imperfections, there exists a silent pulse of perfect rhythm, a complex form of wave forms and resonances, which is absolutely individual and unique, and yet which connects us to everything in the universe.
In the Middle Ages people were well aware of the inexhaustible power that arises simply from sitting still... The inner quiet which arises when the body is motionless and in its best possible form can become the source of transcendental experience. By emptying ourselves of all those matters that normally occupy us, we become receptive to Greater Being. True enlightenment has the effect of so fundamentally affecting and shaking the whole person that they themselves, as well as their total physical existence in the world, is completely transformed.
~ from "On Practicing Tranquility" by Karlfried Graf von Durckheim in Parabola, 1996