We must understand the connection between inner solitude and inner silence; they are inseparable. All the masters of the interior life speak of the two in the same breath.
Interpretation
Inner solitude and silence are vital for personal growth and understanding.
This quote emphasizes the importance of inner solitude and inner silence as interconnected elements of personal and spiritual development. Richard J. Foster suggests that to truly engage with the inner life, one must cultivate both solitude, which allows for deep reflection, and silence, which fosters an environment conducive to inner peace and clarity. Together, they create a foundation for profound self-discovery and connection with the deeper aspects of existence.
In practice
During a meditation workshop, I shared a quote by Richard J. Foster to highlight the importance of silence in our practice.
Go another step. Try to live one entire day without words at all. Do it not as a law, but as an experiment. Note your feelings of helplessness and excessive dependence upon words to communicate. Try to find new ways to relate to tohers that are not dependent upon words. Enjoy, savor the day. Learn from it.
Jesus Christ and all the writers of the New Testament call us to break free of mammon lust and live in joyous trust...They point us toward a way of living in which everything we have we receive as a gift, and everything we have is cared for by God, and everything we have is available to others when it is right and good. This reality frames the heart of Christian simplicity. It is the means of liberation and power to do what is right and to overcome the forces of fear and avarice.
Love, not anger, brought Jesus to the cross. Golgotha came as a result of God's great desire to forgive, not his reluctance. Jesus knew that by his vicarious suffering he could actually absorb all the evil of humanity and so heal it, forgive it, redeem it.
Humility, as we all know, is one of those virtues that is never gained by seeking it. The more we pursue it the more distant it becomes. To think we have it is sure evidence that we don't.
When we determine to dwell on the good and excellent things in life, we will be so full of those things that they will tend to swallow our problems.
The Spiritual Disciplines are things that we do. We must never lose sight of this fact. It is one thing to talk piously about 'the solitude of the heart,' but if that does not somehow work its way into our experience, then we have missed the point of the Disciplines. We are dealing with actions, not merely states of mind.
Anyone who fights for the future, lives in it today.
There's the constant concern with what happens to you when you die. Every society thinks about that and makes things to deal with that.
As a human being, one has been endowed with just enough intelligence to be able to see clearly how utterly inadequate that intelligence is when confronted with what exists.
Not till your thoughts cease all their branching here and there, not till you abandon all thoughts of seeking for something, not till your mind is motionless as wood or stone, will you be on the right road to the Gate.
The past is already gone, the future is not yet here. There's only one moment for you to live, and that is the present moment
There's so many people going through so many, like, uncomfortable situations. For me to be - I mean, obviously being nervous is natural - but for me to think that winning a tennis match or losing a tennis match is the end of the world, I think just kind of shows what kind of privilege I have.
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