Silent Together
Listening to the Wellspring of Self
Origin
Our Thoughts and Experiences
Peri Chickering
"It was spring of 2009 and while I was waiting for my husband to buy a book in our local bookstore, a small book entitled Listening below the Noise caught my eye. Always looking for light reads, both literally and metaphorically, I added it to his tab. Traveling regularly at this time of my life, I slipped this book into my always ready to go briefcase. A few weeks later winging my way home from a work engagement, I remembered this little book I had tucked away. Drawing it out and settling into my seat, I flipped it open to the introduction and began to read. Moments later tears were streaming down my cheeks, it was all I could do to contain a full out episode of weeping.“ Not the place to read this book” I thought as I abruptly closed it and slid it safely back into the space from which it had emerged... read Peri's full story.
Barbara Cecil
"So often in the days I designate to quietude I end up facing “what is so.” I am somehow able to settle with the chaos, the desperate pursuit of solutions, and flailing reactions bouncing off the walls of my senses. Eventually I come to terms with what is actually going on behind my own storylines and our collective travesties, which is most often comprehending something very simple. When I hit the bedrock of “what is so”, I realize “what I know." I usually know something equally simple about my right relationship to the circumstance and people in it. And I have faith in next steps on the path forward."
Glennifer Gillespie
"I have been practicing periods of conscious silence for quite some years now, because it is only in silence that, if I am fortunate, I experience awareness of the deep pulsation of life, and thus, it seems to me, am able to experience my self. Practicing silence, whether for short periods or long, is for me sometimes blissful, sometimes confronting, sometimes confounding, but it is never, never boring. It is entry into the alive and intense inner space that is everyone’s birthright."
Beth Jandernoa
“It has taken me many years to make friends with silence. I used to feel great discomfort in my
body and with the running commentary inside my head which sometimes sounded like competing blaring
radio broadcasts. There have been many twists and turns, ups and downs in my process. Every
so often I would read or hear a pointer that seemed to shift my internal state and I would open to a much
richer quieter space.
Recently I began to relate to silence as a companion. This practice has shifted my experience in a way that I can palpably feel greater presence all around and inside me. Another practice I use is stopping throughout the day and becoming aware of my awareness. All that has been demanding my attention recedes and I feel like I am in an oasis of quiet aliveness.
I am so grateful that stillness and quiet are no longer strangers on this amazing journey of life.”
Dorian Baroni
"Although I no longer adhere to the last Sunday of the month practice itself, I am deeply aware that day is taking place and this allows me to pause and connect with the spirit of it as it wings its way around the globe. Even just that one moment or two nourishes and centers me. Reminding me of the dance of connection and uniqueness that resides at the heart of each moment, when noticed and explored."