Carolyn Chute Quotes

I named this place Listening Point because only when one comes to listen, only when one is aware and still, can things be seen and heard. Everyone has a listening point somewhere. It does not have to be in the north or close to the wilderness, but someplace of quiet where the universe can be contemplated with awe.

She would sit by herself in the middle of the old stoe amphitheatre, with the sky's starry vault overhead, and simply listen to the great silence around her.

All of our great traditions, religious, contemplative and artistic, say that you must a learn how to be alone - and have a relationship with silence. It is difficult, but it can start with just the tiniest quiet moment.

There are times when we stop, we sit still. We listen and breezes from a whole other world begin to whisper.

Seek out a tree and let it teach you stillness.

Take time to be quiet.

No writing on the solitary, meditative dimensions of life can say anything that has not already been said better by the wind in the pine trees.

Solitude has its own very strange beauty to it.

We need to find God, and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. See how nature - trees, flowers, grass- grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence... We need silence to be able to touch souls.

Silence is the pause in me when I am near to God.

There is so much noise in the world! May we learn to be silent in our hearts and before God.

The word must be heard in silence; there must be darkness to see the stars.

I go among trees and sit still. All my stirring becomes quiet around me like circles on water.

As before, there is a great silence, with no end in sight. The writer surrenders, listening.

Real action is in silent moments.

Thoughts can create such a barrier that even if you are standing before a beautiful flower, you will not be able to see it. Your eyes are covered with layers of thought. To experience the beauty of the flower you have to be in a state of meditation, not in a state of mentation. You have to be silent, utterly silent, not even a flicker of thought - and the beauty explodes, reaches to you from all directions. You are drowned in the beauty of a sunrise, of a starry night, of beautiful trees.

We just sat there quiet for a long time, which was fine, and I was thinking about way back in the very beginning in the Literal Heart of Jesus.

The first requirement for prayer is silence. People of prayer are people of silence.

No more words. In the name of this place we drink in with our breathing, stay quiet like a flower. So the nightbirds will start singing.

The beginning of prayer is silence.

The heart beats louder and the soul hears quicker in silence and solitude.

Let us leave a little room for reflection in our lives, room too for silence. Let us look within ourselves and see whether there is some delightful hidden place inside where we can be free of noise and argument. Let us hear the Word of God in stillness and perhaps we will then come to understand it.

The teaching arises out of the stillness. But when I'm alone, there's only the stillness, and that is my favorite place.

It isn't necessary that you leave home. Sit at your desk and listen. Don't even listen, just wait. Don't wait, be still and alone. The whole world will offer itself to you.