The Great Silence - Robert Sardello

We have a strong tendency to imagine Silence as the
absence of sound.  This imagination deprives Silence of
being anything in itself and makes it an emptiness, a void...

But Silence was here before anything else.  It is the most
primary phenomenon of existence, both palpably something
and seemingly nothing.

Silence is prior to sound, not the cessation of sound.  It is
already present.  If we drop into quietness for just a moment,
we feel the presence of Silence as in invitation.  We are being
invited into a new way of being.

Silence is not merely the void from which things spring up;
it is a living presence...  As we enter the mystery of Silence,
its presence resonates throughout the fibers of our flesh,
while extending beyond the flesh...  The inward silence of
solitude meets with the Great Silence of Cosmic Wisdom...

Silence bears the wholeness we keep looking for.  It is around
us and within us.  It goes to the deepest depths of the soul
and to the outermost reaches of the cosmos uniting in our heart.

The experience comes with astonishing intimacy and feels like
the finding of a long lost beloved..

We, along with everything else, are within Silence.  This realm
of Silence is pregnant with the ever-living Mystery.  It is the
deepest feeling of communing, touched by the ineffable, that
keeps us intimately bound with the truth of our core being,
the very essence of our being; an interiority that has been
waiting for us.

~

Silence has a rhythm all its own.  The currents of Silence
weave polarities and opposites and contradictions together.

Within Silence everything resonates in true intimacy and
mystery.

When we perceive through the depths of Silence we discover
the invisible body of the world in which everything is nurtured
into existence at every moment.  We discover ourselves as
participants in the Great Silence.  We are not detached observers
of an independent phenomenon, for we exist within the Silence
we are observing.  The world of subjective experience and outer
presence dissolve into one field.

When we incline toward Silence a resonance is set up within
our heart, prompting an inclination of our heart to enter
deeper into the realm of Silence...  In the interior space of the
etheric heart we feel the currents of Silence as an endless
intimate infinity that we are within.  We are held within a
tender, loving, invisible presence...
A vivid Presence of Silence...

Excerpts from: Silence, The Mystery of Wholeness

by Robert Sardello

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

Silence - The Mystery of Wholeness - Sardello

There is a Living Silence that hears the cry of the Soul.

Abandon surface impressions and patterns.
Abandon what has become comfortable, and embrace a
sacred depth of being that asks us to enter that which is wholly
unknown and that which fosters genuine metanoia.  This Holy Silence
creates an inner clearing that makes room for new life, including
living, breathing Silence.  In this dimension where time has become
space, life is enlivened.

We are fortunate to have night's solace.  In the silence that is created
by the dark of night...that melancholy time, when the stars remind
us of the Silence of "God" - here we can lean into the unknown,
setting aside life's demands and tasks, and the oppressive weight
of our carefully constructed version of who we think we are.
We can remember how to see in the dark... with our ears...
perceiving the Silence in its holy echoing and resonance, its
calling forth a knowing that is from the Soul.

The Silence sends us on a different pilgrimage.  It guards the
heart's fire and teaches us to speak from within with a
language that is imbued with the Sacred.  Words thus nurtured
in this Holy Silence fly forth to lead us back to the Silence from
which we were born...

As we enter the mystery of Silence, its presence resonates
throughout the fibers of our flesh to the soul inwardly and
to the cosmos outwardly.  The inward silence of solitude meets
up with the Great Silence of Cosmic Wisdom.  When we do not
cultivate this, we lose access to the presence of the Silence.
Without silence we are lost and cannot get still enough to find
our way back.

Silence bears the wholeness we keep looking for while we do
not know exactly what we are looking for.  It is around us and
within us.  It goes to the deepest depths of the Soul and to the
outermost reaches of the cosmos and continuously unites the
two at the centering place of our Heart.  Here everything comes
alive again as if for the first time.  We may be shocked to notice
we had not even realized we had lost ourselves.  And feel a new
attunement to Spirit as a directly felt reality.
The Silence is palpable.

In Silence everything displays its depth.  We are part of the depth
of everything around us.  We see that separation between
ourselves and the world is an illusion.  We and the world each
mirror the other within the depths of the Soul.

Silence is not merely the void from which things spring up, it is
a living presence.  The deeper we enter into Silence the more we
become aware that this living presence is primary.

Robert Sardello
From: Silence - The Mystery of Wholeness
from the Introduction and Chapter 1

Silence is a Living Space - Therese Schroeder-Sheker

Silence is a Living Silence that is needed to hear the cry of the soul.
Abandon surface impressions and patterns, abandon what has become
comfortable, and embrace the sacred depth of being that asks us to
enter that which is wholly unknown and that which fosters genuine
metanoia [a transformative change of heart].  The Holy Silence
creates an inner clearing that makes room for new life, including
living, breathing Silence.  In this dimension
where time becomes space, life is enlivened.

Blocking the light of the soul results in a need to pre-package things,
ideas, emotions because they provide a semblance of light.  When
light of the soul is blocked, we develop a desire for things, not for
Silence.

[Through Silence] we can enter that which is wholly unknown with
a creative purity that is startling, because we are accompanied by
the companion-presence: Love.

Therese Schroeder-Sheker
From the introduction to:
Silence: The Mystery of Wholeness
by Robert Sardello

~

We need to re-orient our lives to be in constant resonance with
The Silence.  We have to rediscover lost realms, and at the same
time, clear away our deeply engrained desire to live by what
others have said, rather than discover inner truths for ourselves.

Robert Sardello
From: Silence: The Mystery of Wholeness

The Solace of Silence - Cheryl Sanders-Sardello

The enormity of life's tasks weigh and press on the day...
they demand and insist on a constancy of attention that is relentless.
But we are fortunate to have night's solace - in the silence that is
created by the dark.  Night... that melancholy time, when the stars
remind us of the Silence of God.  Here we can lean into the
unknown, setting aside the oppressive weight of our carefully
constructed version of who we think we are.  We can remember
how to see in the dark... with our ears... perceiving the Silence in
its holy echoing and resonance, its calling forth a knowing that is
from the soul.

The Silence sends us on a different pilgrimage.  It guards the heart's
fire and teaches us to speak from within with a language that is
imbued with the Sacred.  Words thus nurtured in the Holy Silence
fly forth to lead us back to the Silence from which they were born.

Cheryl Sanders-Sardello
From - Silence: The Mystery of Wholeness
by Robert Sardello

~

Several years ago I "practiced" what I called "window sitting."
I would sit in the window in the dark late at night when the "noise"
of the day had settled.  It was an incredible experience - just
listening to the silence of the night, leaning into the darkness, the
silence at the window, which drew me into the
deeper Silence of Being - the Sacred Silence within, as Cheryl describes.
I have gotten away from this "practice" of "listening" at the window
 to the Silence, but am rediscovering my way back...

~

What is necessary, after all, is only this; solitude, vast inner solitude.
To walk inside yourself and meet no one for hours...

Rainer Maria Rilke

~

Photo - clouds, color inverted digitally

The Great Silence - Robert Sardello

We have a strong tendency to imagine Silence as
the absence of sound.
This imagination deprives Silence of being anything in itself

and makes it an emptiness, a void…

But Silence was here before anything else.

It is the most primary phenomenon of existence,
both palpably something and seemingly nothing.

Silence is prior to sound, not the cessation of sound.

It is already present.

If we drop into quietness for just a moment,

We *feel* the presence of Silence as in invitation.

We are being invited into a new way of being.

Silence is not merely the void from which things spring up;
it is a living presence…

As we enter the mystery of Silence, its presence resonates
throughout the fibers of our flesh,
 while extending beyond the flesh…
The inward silence of solitude meets with the
Great Silence of Cosmic Wisdom…

Silence bears the wholeness we keep looking for.
It is around us and within us.
It goes to the deepest depths of the soul
and to the outermost reaches of the cosmos
uniting in our heart.

The experience comes with astonishing intimacy
and feels like the finding of a long lost beloved.
It requires going to the edge of selflessness
and we discover that we are part of the depth of

everything around us.

Separation between ourselves and the world is illusion.

We, along with everything else, are within Silence.
This realm of Silence is pregnant with the ever-living Mystery.

It is the deepest feeling of communing,
 [of being] touched by the ineffable,
that keeps us intimately bound with the truth of our core being,
the very essence of our being;
 an interiority that has been waiting for us.

~

Silence has a rhythm all its own.

The currents of Silence weave polarities and opposites
 and contradictions together.
Within Silence everything resonates in true intimacy and mystery.

When we perceive *through* the depths of Silence
we discover the invisible body of the world in which everything is
 nurtured into existence at every moment.

We discover ourselves as participants in the Great Silence.
We are not detached observers of an independent phenomenon,
for we exist within the Silence we are observing.

The world of subjective experience and outer presence dissolve into one field.

When we incline toward Silence
a resonance is set up within our heart,
prompting an inclination of our heart to
enter deeper into the realm of Silence…

In the interior space of the etheric heart
we feel the currents of Silence as an endless
intimate infinity that we are within.

We are held within a tender, loving, invisible presence…

A vivid Presence of Silence…

Excerpts From: Silence, TheMystery of Wholeness
 by Robert Sardello

Please Note: I have taken excerpts and lines from
various pages of the book: Silence: The Mystery
of Wholeness by Robert Sardello and put them
together creating this prose poem with the publisher’s

and author’s permission.  For me his words here capture
the Essence of Silence and my experience of the
Great Silence as well…

Copyright - Publisher’s Credit

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Excerpts from Silence: The Mystery of Wholeness by Robert
Sardello, published by North Atlantic Books, copyright
© 2006, 2008 by Robert Sardello. Reprinted by permission of
publisher. Reposting or reprinting of material strictly forbidden
except by express permission of publisher.

Note:
Permission was granted me by the publisher for this
material to be presented in this format for this blog post.
If you wish to repost it you must contact the publisher at:
permissions@northatlanticbooks.com.

Please honor the publisher’s/author’s copyright.
Thank you…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~