finding silence

Finding Silence

I am busy from early in the morning until late at night. I am rarely alone. Where can I find a time and place to contemplate in silence?

Silence is something that comes from your heart, not from outside. Silence doesn’t mean not talking and not doing things; it means that you are not disturbed inside. If you’re truly silent, then no matter what situation you find yourself in you can enjoy the silence. There are moments when you think you’re silent and all around is silent, but talking is going on all the time inside your head. That’s not silence. The practice is how to find silence in all the activities you do.

- Thich Nhat Hanh, from "The Heart of the Matter" (Winter 2009)

moral foundations

Get out of your own Way

There’s your cushion: you sit on it, it’s quiet, and it’s all there. That’s all you need, and the rest of it’s gone—whether or not you eat rice or wheat, and whether or not you enjoy the chanting. I like it when it all goes away and it’s quiet.

We just have to notice. We just get out of the way and all the answers are already there. And so the more stripped down it can possibly be, the more I like it.

- Jim Gollin, from "Corporate Takeover " (Summer, 2005)

no easy believing

"Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it.
Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many.
Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books.
Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders.
Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations.
But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it."


As quoted in the Kalama Sutra, as translated in The American Buddhist Directory (1985) by Kevin O'Neill, p. 7

businessless person

“As I see it, there isn’t so much to do. Just be ordinary—put on your robes, eat your food, and pass the time doing nothing.” - Master Linji, Teaching 18

More ...

mental proliferation

A short and useful explanation of the concept of papanca (mental proliferation)


"The result of papañca is that the mental universe we inhabit is entirely constructed by our minds, and we can share little of that with others (most of whom are trapped in their own papañca)."

http://dharmastudy.com/papanca/

new paradigms

New Paradigm Thinking in Science and in Theology

Fritjof Capra and David Steindl-Rast, with Thomas Matus (1992)

Belonging to the Universe – new thinking about God and Nature

Penguin; ISBN 0140172394



3 page summary table


htm version

little things

Hang on to what you got

You aint got much but its all you got

Hang on to what you got

Little things mean a lot

[Clark 1970]

EO Wilson interviewed by Robert Wright

evolutionary psychology (aka sociobiology)

Edward O. Wilson

Edward O. Wilson video of the sociobiology man interviewed by Robert Wright