Monday, August 16, 2010

Richard Rohr on Silence

Yesterday's meditation from Richard Rohr struck me deeply, and I wanted to share it in its entirety here.

~~~


The most simple spiritual discipline is some degree of solitude and silence. But it's the hardest, because none of us want to be with someone we don't love. Besides that, we invariably feel bored with ourselves, and all our loneliness comes to the surface.

We won't have the courage to go into that terrifying place without Love to protect us and lead us, without the light and love of God overriding our own self doubt. Such silence is the most spacious and empowering technique in the world, yet it's not a technique at all. It's precisely the refusal of all technique.

~~~

Silence, I think, is hard.  and terrifying, and sometimes so necessary.  I usually avoid it until it is forced, and then I cringe as it comes, and am usually thankful for it as I emerge from it.  Odd how that works, isn't it?

2 comments:

JEnny said...

Awesome.
The Henri Nouwen bread for the journey reading (via email) a day or so ago was to the same effect. Together with the Richard Rohr reading, this is extremely powerful.

Thanks for sharing, and hope your 11 days of study remaining go very well.

Lisa said...

thanks Jenny :)