Where will I find silence?

"The Spirit of the Disciplines" by Dallas Willard is blowing me away. I may or may not be writing this from my Biblical Interpretations and Spiritual Formations class where the required reading for today was taken from the fore-mentioned book. Willard deals with Salvation as a life process as opposed to the heightened spiritual moment or ritual that our culture has come to define it by. He then moves on to discuss each discipline, be it that of abstinence or of engagement, and encourage the reader to be experimental with each spiritual discipline to become experienced seekers of a deeper and fuller relationship with Christ.

Here is an excerpt on the discipline of silence that really stirred my soul,

"Silence goes beyond solitude, and without it solitude has little effect. Henri Nouwen observes that 'silence is the way to make solitude a reality,' But silence is frightening because it strips us as nothing else does, throwing us upon the stark realities of our life. It reminds us of death, which will cut us off from this world and leave only us and God. And in that quiet, what if there turns out to be very little to 'just us and God'? Think what it says about the inward emptiness of our lives if we must always turn on the tape player or radio to made sure something is happening around us.

Hearing is said to be the last of our senses to go at death. Sound always strikes deeply and disturbingly into our souls. So, for the sake of our souls, we must seek times to leave our television, radio, tape players and telephones turned off. We should close off street noises as much as possible. We should try to find how quiet we can make our world by making whatever arrangements are necessary." (163)

This passage really inspired me to seek out silence so that I may truly "Be still and know" as in Psalm 46:10.

Perhaps I will end with Psalm 131:

My heart is not proud, O Lord,
my eyes are not haughty;
I do not concern myself with great matters
or things too wonderful for me.
But I have stilled and quieted my soul;
like a weaned child with its mother,
like a weaned child is my soul within me.

O Israel, put your hope in the Lord
both now and forevermore.