The more a man enters the light of understanding, the more aware he is of his own ignorance. And when the light reveals itself fully and unites with him and draws him into itself, so that he finds himself alone in a sea of light, then he is emptied of all knowledge and immersed in absolute unknowing
Simeon the New Theologian, 949–1022
Silence is the closest thing to God we know.
Meister Eckhart
photo briyyz
Waiting is not a very popular attitude. Waiting is not something that people think about with great sympathy. In fact, most people consider waiting a waste of time. Perhaps this is because the culture in which we live is basically saying, “Get going! Do something! Show you are able to make a difference! Don’t just sit there and wait!” For many people, waiting is an awful desert between where they are and where they want to go. And people do not like such a place. They want to get out of it by doing something…
Most of us think of waiting as something very passive, a hopeless state determined by events totally out of our hands…But there is none of this passivity in scripture. Those who are waiting are waiting very actively. They know that what they are waiting for is growing from the ground on which they are standing…Active waiting means to be present fully to the moment, in the conviction that something is happening where you are and that you want to be present to it… Waiting is essential to the spiritual life.
Henri Nouwen, Waiting for God
photo nir b
Let the mind rest at peace.
The Ten Thousand Things rise and fall, while the self watches their return.
They grow and flourish and then return to the source.
Returning to the source is stillness, which is the way of nature.
Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching
photo eric hill
One of the most popular bits of poetry in Zen.
Simple, and yet it contains all of practice.
I stroll along the stream up to where it ends.
I sit down watching the clouds as they begin to rise.
Wang Wei, Chinese poet ( 699-761)
photo phil catterall
The paradox is indeed that new life is born
out of the pains of the old.
Henri Nouwen, Reaching Out.
photo david lally
