Awareness: Silence’s very own practice.

The practice of contemplation over many winters into spring often leads to a subtle but fundamental shift in prayer: from using a prayer word as a means of concentration to simple sitting in awareness. Just being. When inner silence sits in simple repose, its prayer is naked awareness. If we used a prayer word, it has not disappeared so much as opened up, something like the way a tulip opens up: what was tightly gathered in pointed focus begins to swell, expand, and open. And now this pollen-painted bowl of petals holds air and light-filled emptiness. This is awareness.

— Father Martin Laird, in A Sunlit Absence: Silence, Awareness, and Contemplation.

As regular readers and listeners will be aware, silence and awareness practice are a great passion of mine, and Fr. Martin Laird expresses both exquisitely in his writings.

In today’s podcast, I read from Fr. Laird’s book, A Sunlit Absence: Silence, Awareness, and Contemplation, leading us into ten minutes of contemplation.

Image and words: Andō.

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