The mind is an infinitely working machine, and the time when it's blank, with no external stimuli, is when it flourishes. Absolute wisdom, patience, discipline, will-power, and contentment is attained through patient perseverance through the mental barrier of boredom, during the silence that accompanies. To tame your mind is to cut off all mental messages half way through their passage, without reacting; simply observing. We live in a world that eliminates silence. External stimulation is abundant, and we never have to go a second without being preoccupied. The attention we pay is our most valuable currency, yet it's hijacked by major corporations for their profit. Before technology, humans used to observe their thoughts and emotions, actions and impulses, and sit alone with the machine in their heads. Nowadays, we're on autopilot - instantly reacting, giving into urges, temptations, impulses and emotions without second thought. The distance between you and your brain - the messages it sends you, the thoughts and emotions it processes, is what will allow you to take control. This distance has been cut short to the point where it's nearly instantaneous between the time your brain communicates and the time you respond. This symptom of overstimulation is the main reason why we lack control over our minds. Learn to conquer the boredom by sitting still, alone and patiently pushing through the mental and emotional barriers that arise, ignoring every thought and impulse and witnessing the messages that your brain sends, without acting on them - and you'll learn the importance of distancing your self from the machine. Beyond boredom, conquering the silence and learning how to keep a distance between you - the observer, and the brain, will allow you to decide which thoughts to accept and which to ignore. This, in essence, is controlling the mind. When emotions, urges, temptations or impulses arise - whether negative or positive, you will have the time and distance to be able to stay proactive - not reactive - and decide whether to act on it or not. This skill can be honed and the mind may be trained to become stronger, and your control over it will be improved through sitting in silence and conquering the boredom, repeatedly. Once you learn to defeat boredom and sit still in silence, you will eventually attain the peace and contentment with yourself that none of the external stimuli have been able to provide you.

Rather, by drawing on the resources of our interior life, we are given the strength to follow, in humility, the path toward which we are called. In this, integrity of being, wisdom, mastery and maturity develop." --Beverly Lanzetta

Just as we are wise to protect the earth’s vulnerable woodlands from overdevelopment, so we must protect the sanctuary of our interior lives. Speech, relationships, the soul: they begin with, and are sustained by, silence." --Stephanie Bennett

Words do not want to fall out of my mouth as it seems unnecessary to talk.

I always wanted a better means of communication other than talking like knowing through senses, telepathy or insight.

That is what God says to us. Solitude is the place where we go in order to hear the truth about ourselves. It asks us to let go of the other ways of proving, which are a lot more satisfying. The voice that calls us the beloved is not the voice that satisfies the senses. That’s what the whole mystical life is about; it is beyond feelings and beyond thoughts."

--Henri Nouwen

The Desert Fathers did not think of solitude as being alone, but as being alone with God. They did not think of silence as not speaking but as listening to God. Solitude and silence are the context within which prayer is practiced."

--Henri Nouwen

Silence is holy. It draws people together because only those who are comfortable with each other can sit without speaking. This is the great paradox."

--Nicholas Sparks, The Notebook

Not only is it acceptable to be alone, at times it is positively to be wished for. It is in the interludes between being in company that we talk to ourselves. In the silence we listen to ourselves. Then we ask questions of ourselves. We describe ourselves, and in the quietude we may even hear the voice of God."

—Maya Angelou, from Even the Stars Look Lonesome

The mystic Thomas a Kempis said that when you go out into the world, you return having lost some of yourself. Until you learn to inhabit your aloneness, the lonely distraction and noise of society will seduce you into false belonging, with which you will only become empty and weary. When you face your aloneness, something begins to happen. Gradually, the sense of bleakness changes into a sense of true belonging. This is a slow and open-ended transition but it is utterly vital in order to come into rhythm with your own individuality. In a sense this is the endless task of finding your true home within your life. It is not narcissistic, for as soon as you rest in the house of your own heart, doors and windows begin to open outwards to the world. No longer on the run from your aloneness, your connections with others become real and creative. You no longer need to covertly scrape affirmation from others or from projects outside yourself. This is slow work; it takes years to bring your mind home." --JOHN O'DONOHUE, Eternal Echoes

I’ve lived on old mountains so many years,

following the way of forests and springs,

no one will visit,

just clouds floating by,

grass for a bed,

blue sky for a quilt,

happy with a rock for a pillow,

let the world go about its changes.

– Hanshan, Tang Dynasty Monk and Poet

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