Silence: A Guide to Harnessing Your Most Powerful Inner Resource Through Mindfulness Techniques, Zen Philosophy, and the Art of Embracing Quiet

by Thich Nhat Hanh

A person who is anxious and fearful about the future is trapped just as much as one bound by the past.

Mindfulness

is often described as a bell that reminds us to stop and silently listen.

We don’t have the freedom that allows us to hear, and

to see,

to ju...

Silence like this can be called thundering silence, because it’s eloquent and powerful.

Because you really are free—free from your regrets and suffering concerning the past, free from your fear and uncertainty about the future, free from all kinds of mental chatter.

Suddenly the water stops flowing, and all these plants that from their birth have always, day and night, heard that cascading sound hear it no longer.

“the one who listens deeply to the sounds of the world.”

When you’ve been able to still all the noise inside of you, when you’ve been able to establish silence, a thundering silence, in you, you begin to hear the deepest kind of calling from within yourself.

You may see that you are a continuation of your ancestors. Your parents and your ancestors are fully present in every cell of your body; you are their continuation. You don’t have a separate self. If you remove your ancestors and your parents from you, there’s no “you” left. You may see that you’re made

Your parents and your ancestors are fully present in every cell of your body; you are their continuation. You don’t have a separate self. If you remove your ancestors and your parents from you, there’s no “you” left.