The Power of Silence
In a time when technology penetrates our lives in so many ways and materialism exerts such a powerful influence over us, Cardinal Robert Sarah presents a bold book about the strength of silence. The modern world generates so much noise, he says, that seeking moments of silence has become both harder and more necessary than ever before. Silence is the indispensable doorway to the divine, explains the cardinal in this profound conversation with Nicolas Diat. Within the hushed and hallowed walls of the La Grande Chartreux, the famous Carthusian monastery in the French Alps, Cardinal Sarah addresses the following questions: Can those who do not know silence ever attain truth, beauty, or love? Do not wisdom, artistic vision, and devotion spring from silence, where the voice of God is heard in the depths of the human heart?
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What Hacker News says
- For anybody curious about the Catholic and monastic spirituality of silence, I would recommend a profound book:
The Power of Silence by Cardinal Robert Sarah
It’s final chapter is in fact a discussion with the Carthusian Master Dom Dysmus himself.
- It may be interesting at the end of this thread to take an inventory of the publishing dates of listed books. Will most be modern? Will many come from learned past of our elders?
It is hard for me to select a favorite. However as a voracious reader there is only one author for whom I have found myself re-reading his books multiple times: Robert Sarah.
He has published two books:
The Power of Silence (extended reflection on silence and the human condition) God or Nothing (autobiography + reflections on current affairs)
- I highly suggest "The Tibetan Book of The Dead" and "The Power of Silence." Try to find the TBOTD version translated by W.Y. Evans-Wentz if you're not one for happy meal, watered-down philosophy. Take these texts with a grain of salt at first only because they will be thoroughly alien to your mind; once absorbed use wisely.
"...that which clingth not no fall can come. Where no fall cometh, there is rest, and where rest is, there is no keen desire. Where keen desire is not, naught cometh or goeth; and where naught cometh or goeth there is no death, no birth." -GB, TBOTD
"Cutting our chains is marvelous, but also very undesirable, for nobody wants to be free." -CC, The Power of Silence
EDIT: btw yogic flying is for idiots. Those who've practiced meditation for years and those fewer who've reached Nirvana have accessed and gained control enough to manipulate what they call the dharmakaya which is connected to the right temporal lobe I believe (also referred to as the silent mind). Those with this degree of mastery have OOB experiences with great maneuverability.
