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22nd December
James Finley, Christian Meditation: Experiencing the Presence of God (HarperCollins, 2005), 107.
Long quote, below, 106, 107 & 111.
Image: Branimir Balogović Croatia, unsplash.com/@brandaohh
‘There are no doctrines to which you must submit to gain access to silence. In fact, as long as the mental noise of ascribing or refusing to ascribe to doctrines continues, you are not yet silent. There is nothing you have to figure out before silence will allow you to enter into all that lies hidden in it. In fact, as long as the mental noise of imagining anything needs to be figured out, or can be figured out [continues], you are not yet silent. All that is needed is for you to simply become silent, in a willingness to become more silent still. …
So much of what meditation has to offer lies hidden in our willingness to allow the last echoes of egocentric noise to dissolve into silence. …
And it is in the laying bare of ourselves as we really are, in silence, that we unexpectedly make our way through the gate into God. Truer still, we are surprised to discover God passing through the gate to meet us, delighted that we have finally begun to see and accept who God knows and accepts us to be from before we were born.'
To read the unfolding narrative of each day's Advent Adventures with Silence short quotes in order, click the image of the blue tin mug.
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