Inviting Silence - Gunilla Norris
Other books I have read that have led up to this: Eat, Pray, and Love; The Way of the Heart; Life of the Beloved.
I have realized the value of silence and agree with Confucius that Silence is the friend that never betrays. I can write an entire blog on this alone.
This book starts with a quote from Meister Eckhart "Nothing in all creation is so like God as silence." I came to the same conclusion at Mexico, am I smart or what 
Some lines I liked:
Suffering:
Through the practice of silence we become aware
of our pain. The pain is always there in our minds
and in our bodies. Silence allows us to see it,
face it, release it.
We constantly judge ourselves.
Our mind decides what our experiences should be or should not be -
relentlessly labeling things good or bad -
demanding that our lives conform to our labels.
Then,when pain comes into our lives
-and it does to every life - we do not only suffer it,
but we suffer our suffering as well.
We add the mind’s harsh judgment of pain
to our actual experience of it.
By practicing silence, we may discover the ways
in which we intensify our pain by judging it.
Then we have a chance to become less harsh,
more forgiving.
….
By cultivating silence, we can find and release
deeper and deeper levels of pain and so discover
once again what is beneath the pain:
the natural joy that is already inside us,
free to rise and flow into expression.
hmmm..no words are more truer than this !!
Comment by Vidya — September 10, 2008 @ 6:22 pm
Yo,
I am throwing a house warming party on the 3rd week of October. If you are free, come man!
Comment by Vidya — September 15, 2008 @ 6:26 pm