We in the "developed" world seem to have many auditory strategies that insulate us from the presence of silence, simplicity, and solitude. When I return to Western culture after time in desert, mountain or forest, I discover how we have filled our world with a multiplicity of noises, a symphony of forgetfulness that keeps our won thoughts and realizations, feelings and intuitions out of audible range.
Joan HalifaxMany of us think that compassion drains us, but I promise you it is something that truly enlivens us.
Joan HalifaxIn accepting death as inevitable, we don't label it as a good thing or a bad thing. As one of my teachers once said to me, โDeath happens. It is just death, and how we meet it is up to us.
Joan HalifaxCatastrophe is the essence of the spiritual path, a series of breakdowns allowing us to discover the threads that weave all of life into a whole cloth.
Joan Halifax