Quoting Silence, March, 2026:
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A post throughout each week of the month, offering quotes and resources linked to one contemporary author who writes about silence and its role as a spiritual discipline. |
Different weeks of the month offer different resources, as below:
- first week: a short, image-backed quote with links to associated resources in the accompanying text
- middle weeks: a short, image-backed quote taken from a longer one by the author, found below the image
- last week: a short quote and questions to encourage reflection on all the month's quotations and images
Sarah Anderson, our author for March, is primarily known for her longstanding associations with travel writing but has also published several books about spirituality, particularly relating to women.
You can find out more about her book, The Lost Art of Silence: Reconnecting to the Power and Beauty of Quiet (Shambhala, 2023), from which this month's quotes are taken, by clicking here.
You can find out more about her book, The Lost Art of Silence: Reconnecting to the Power and Beauty of Quiet (Shambhala, 2023), from which this month's quotes are taken, by clicking here.
Audio resources
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For a 5 minute audio guided meditation to use with each week's short quote, click play on the image. To pause and restart click the same place.
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An audio guided Lectio Divina for the longer quotes. Click play on the image above. Allow 10-15 minutes for this. For a text version, click the button.
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Monday 2nd March, 2026
Sarah Anderson, The Lost Art of Silence: Reconnecting to the Power and Beauty of Quiet (Shambhala, 2023), 97.
Image: June Wong, unsplash.com/@junio_006
To read more about Sarah Anderson's book, from which this month's quotes are taken, click here.
Sarah Anderson was educated at two colleges from the University of London: as an undergraduate, she studied Chinese at SOAS - the School of Oriental and African Studies, and Heythrop, the theological college, where she earned an MA in the psychology of religion.
Many people's closest association with Sarah will be from the sudden rise to prominence of The Travel Bookshop, which she established in London in 1979, and which was the real-life inspiration for Richard Curtis' film, the very British Rom-Com, Notting Hill, (1999), staring Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant. For an hour-long interview with her about the bookshop, see here. Sarah's love of travel also led to her writing several books and numerous articles on this subject, which evolved into teaching travel writing at City University and her long-standing role as a judge for the Thomas Cook Travel Book Awards. For more history about her travel writing and adventures, see here.
Sarah is a licenced Reader in the Church of England and a long-term meditator in the tradition of the World Community for Christian Meditation (WCCM): see here. For a 40 minute YouTube video of Sarah talking about this book, and reading some extracts, see here. For an hour's interview about it with Raghu Markus, see here. Along with this month's book, Sarah has also edited collection that draw on her Christian faith in dialogue with other traditions. These include Heaven's Face, Thinly Veiled: A Book of Spiritual Writing by Women (Shambhala, 1998) - see here; and Of Women and Angels: The Virago Book of Spirituality (Virago, 1997) - see here. Sarah has also written an autobiography, Halfway to Venus: A One-armed Journey (Umbrella Books, 2008) - see here -, which details her experience of living with only one arm, along with that of others, and how people like her are portrayed in art and literature.
Sarah is also a painter whose works have been exhibited throughout London.
Monday 9th March, 2026
Sarah Anderson, The Lost Art of Silence: Reconnecting to the Power and Beauty of Quiet (Shambhala, 2023), xi.
Image: T. Ahizo, unusplash.com/@ahizo
The short, image-backed quote, above, is taken from this week's longer quote, below, on pages xi-xii of Sarah Anderson's book. To read more about her book, from which this month's quotes are taken, click here.
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Listen to this week's longer quote:
To listen to the longer quote, below, being read, click the play button on the small version of the image next to or below this text. To see the image full screen as you listen, click the expand screen icon in the corner. |
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‘Nothing about silence is clear-cut. So although I believe that silence is essential, sometimes I find its pursuit a struggle. Silence can force you to confront yourself, which is why many people do everything they can to try to avoid it—often filling their world with vacuous sound. Silence can be transformative—when it snows, the landscape becomes hushed; when machines stop operating, a quietness descends. But silence inevitably also has a dark side, and the exploration of that leads into murky places.
Is silence just the absence of sound? Or does it have a deeper, more profound meaning? Does silence ever really exist? Silence comes before sound—it is not just the cessation of sound; it is there already. …
But why is it that we crave silence? Or what is it in us that needs silence? Silence certainly enhances our powers of attention, and it is a break and rest from the stimuli of the external world. Of course, noise and silence are inextricably linked—the yin and the yang—but do we really only appreciate silence as an absence of sound? I don’t think so. I think it’s far more important than that; as Mahatma Gandhi noted, “It has often occurred to me that a seeker after truth has to be silent.”* This makes total sense to me—for how can we possibly grow in depth if we are being constantly distracted by external noise? Silence can stop a rush to judgement. As the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein said in the last sentence of his Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus: “Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one should be silent.” **…
By learning to appreciate silence and its benefits, one also learns to truly listen—and when one is truly listening, one begins to hear. The more one can listen, the more one really begins to hear others with compassion and kindness.’
* Mahatma Gandhi, Young India: 1927-1928 (Madras, India: S. Ganesan, 1935).
** Ludwig Wittgenstein, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (London, Routledge, 1961), 151.
Monday 16th March, 2026
Sarah Anderson, The Lost Art of Silence: Reconnecting to the Power and Beauty of Quiet (Shambhala, 2023), 99.
Image: by Mary Lynn Bucannan, George Segal sculpture, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Arkansas
The short, image-backed quote, above, is taken from this week's longer quote, below, on pages 99-100 of Sarah Anderson's book. To read more about her book, from which this month's quotes are taken, click here.
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Listen to this week's longer quote:
To listen to the longer quote, below, being read, click the play button on the small version of the image next to or below this text. To see the image full screen as you listen, click the expand screen icon in the corner. |
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'The silence of contemplation is a great unifier of the past, the present, and the future and can bring “the peace of God, which passeth all understanding” (Philippians 4:7). When language ceases, silence begins, but this silence is not just a cessation of language, not just an absence of sound but, as the Swiss philosopher Max Picard describes, “a mark of divine love, that a mystery of the Faith always spreads around itself a kind of cloak of silence.” Meditation has been key to all the major religious traditions, and it is at its central point that Christianity makes contact with the religions of the East, as Aelred Graham wrote: “The Hindu-Buddhist perhaps teaches more clearly than the Christian that the only place we can commune with God is here and the only time we can do so is now.” God is more present in silence than in words, and we have to be brave enough to accept this silence. Canon John Fenton said in a lecture in Oxford, “The most obvious characteristic of God is his silence. He does not cough or mutter or shuffle his feet to reassure us that he is there.” …
In the West, psychology is concerned with the self, whereas in the East it is concerned with the transcendence of the self. Eastern spiritual traditions, especially meditation, have had a profound effect on Western psychology. The self has no real solidity or continuity, but (especially in the West) we try to cling on to our identity and sense of self. Meditation offers a way of learning to let go of self, and from it we can learn that while thoughts come and go, they prove to be ungraspable. Whatever the reason and whatever the motivation for meditating, and regardless of the context, there can be benefits. However, if meditation is reduced to purely psychological terminology, vast areas of spiritual experience are omitted. In the West, a polarisation between active and contemplative life has caused some Christians, the majority of whom lead active lives, to feel alienated from the deep silent prayer that transcends complexity and restores unity. …
Perception changes in meditation, since what happens is not a conscious process but rather a breakthrough to another level of awareness.'
Monday 23rd March, 2026
Sarah Anderson, The Lost Art of Silence: Reconnecting to the Power and Beauty of Quiet (Shambhala, 2023), 104.
Image: generated by ChatGPT 5.2
The short, image-backed quote, above, is taken from this week's longer quote, below, on pages 99-100 of Sarah Anderson's book. To read more about her book, from which this month's quotes are taken, click here.
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Listen to this week's longer quote:
To listen to the longer quote, below, being read, click the play button on the small version of the image next to or below this text. To see the image full screen as you listen, click the expand screen icon in the corner. |
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‘Like everything else, silence is not static. It changes, and we have to keep reassessing it. As Merton wrote, “Inner silence depends on a continual seeking, a continual crying in the night, a repeated bending over the abyss. If we cling to a silence we think we have found forever, we stopped seeking God and the silence goes dead within us.” Through it, we get in touch with what is most basic in human existence. Merton believed that the purpose of meditation was to enable us to release ourselves from worldly affairs, the things that often only entail confusion and sorrow; and by letting these go, it is possible to enter into a loving contact with God. And by giving God praise, honour, thanksgiving, and love, we will also receive much needed help. The Benedictine monk and pioneer of interspiritual thought Bede Griffiths wrote that the wisdom of the great religions was necessary for the survival of the world in crisis—a marriage of East and West. …
Many people today are no longer aware if it is spiritual or psychological help that they need—although I believe the two are linked. All that they know is that their life seems empty and without meaning. Meditation is, of course, not religious if it is used to improve health or enhance business acumen, but does this matter if it can help someone develop psychologically or provide health benefits? And although meditation can start out having purely psychological benefits, it can—and often does—develop into a spiritual practice. Meditation can indeed be taught to people with little or no faith, and sometimes sitting and breathing can become the beginning of a spiritual search, with many eventually finding God or the Divine being, and not the anthropomorphic God they have rejected. …
However, as the American philosopher Ken Wilber observed, no matter the psychological benefits, meditation in any tradition is ultimately spiritual. From a spiritual perspective, it is a union with God, with the Divine, or an insight into the Ultimate Reality. This is something to which all religions aspire and that, if worked at, can be encountered in the depths of one’s being.’
Monday 30th March, 2026
Sarah Anderson, The Lost Art of Silence: Reconnecting to the Power and Beauty of Quiet (Shambhala, 2023), 11.
Image: generated by ChatGPT 5.2
The last week of each month offers some questions to help you reflect further on its quotations and images, and how they resonate with your own spiritual journey and relationship with God.
You can engage with these using the written or audio versions of the questions, below.
You can engage with these using the written or audio versions of the questions, below.
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Listen to the reflection questions:
To listen to the reflection questions, below, being read, click the play button on the 'Reflect ...' image next to or below this text. To see the image full screen as you listen, click the expand screen icon in the corner. |
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Reflection questions:
Before reflecting on this month's quotes and images, take time to re-ground yourself in your body.
Perhaps take a few slow breaths, feel your feet on the floor and be aware of how your body feels in this moment.
1) Read back over or listen again to this month's quotes and spend time looking at their associated images. As you do so, note a phrase or image that draws your attention. If this is a phrase, you might like to write this out in a journal or on a piece of paper where you will see it regularly. Consider reading aloud several times what you have written to help the words sink more deeply into your heart. If an image resonates with you, let your gaze rest lightly on it for a couple of minutes, allowing it to speak to your heart. Consider using it as a screensaver for a while, or perhaps print it out and place it somewhere that you will see it often.
2) What emerges as you sit with the phrase or image that attracted your attention? Does a new insight or a question, emotion or sensation arise? Take some time to write down and ponder on whatever you notice.
3) Where can you see hope in the midst of what is emerging in you, for yourself, your neighbour, your community, or the planet? How might this impact your daily life and those with whom you share it?
4) In the days and weeks to come, how can you stay open to what you have discovered from your reflections?
Take some time to give thanks for the hope that you have found in this month's quotes and images.