HAPPINESS IS NOT A MATTER OF INTENSITY

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We cannot be happy if we expect to live all the time at the highest peak of intensity. Happiness is not a matter of intensity but of balance and order and rhythm and harmony.
Music is pleasing not only because of the sound but because of the silence that is in it: without the alternation of sound and silence there would be no rhythm.

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If we strive to be happy by filling all the silences of life with sound, productive by turning all life's leisure into work, and real by turning all our being into doing, we will only succeed in producing a hell on earth.

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If we have no silence, God is not heard in our music.
 If we have no rest, God does not bless our work.
 If we twist our lives out of shape in order to fill every corner
 of them with action and experience, God will silently withdraw
 from our hearts and leave us empty.
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Thomas Merton
NO MAN IS AN ISLAND
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DARKNESS AND SILENCE

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Everything has its wonders,

even darkness and silence.

And I learn,

whatever state I may be in,

therein to be content.

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Helen Keller, d. 1968

First deaf and blind person to earn

a Bachelor of Arts degree.

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THE INHERENT VALUE OF SILENCE

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The first American mingled with his pride

a singular humility. Spiritual arrogance was

foreign to his nature and teaching.

He never claimed that the power

of articulate speech was proof of

superiority over the dumb creation;

on the other hand, it is to him

a perilous gift. He believes profoundly

in silence - the sign of a perfect equilibrium.

Silence is the absolute poise or

balance of body, mind, and spirit.

The man who preserves his selfhood

ever calm and unshaken by the storms

of existence - not a leaf, as it were,

astir on the tree; not a ripple upon the

surface of shining pool - his, in the mind

of the unlettered sage, is the ideal attitude

and conduct of life.

If you ask him: "What is silence?"

he will answer: "It is the Great Mystery!"

"The holy silence is his voice!"

If you ask: "What are the fruits of silence?"

he will say: "They are self-control,

true courage or endurance, patience,

dignity, and reverence.

Silence is the corner-stone of character."

"Guard your tongue in youth," said

the old chief Wabashaw, "and in age you

may mature a thought that will be

of service to your people."

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Charles Alexander Eastman

(Ohiyesa) - Santee Sioux

From THE SOUL OF THE INDIAN

First published in 1911

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