Silence: The Mystery of Wholeness

Yes Virginia, there is a book out there about spirituality and the esoteric that doesn't have you bleeding from the eyes by the second chapter: this one (provided you skip the introduction, which could put you off completely with its purple prose, obfuscating jargon, and a hilarious impenetrability: a stark contrast to what it's introducing). In this humble little tome, Robert Sardello takes us on a gentle journey into authentic spiritual practice. In nine simple chapters (interlaced with lightly poetic commentaries by his partner Cheryl), Robert edges us step by step into a deeper relationship with that which can fill the heart of us... you... the world... if we're willing to accept it's not "in" us because we're in... on... surrounded by... it! :) What sets this book apart from so many is the precision of the prose in describing spiritual phenomena. Robert really understands them and has a deftly sound take on what lies beneath them. His approach is informed by the big traditions but is strictly non-denominational. It embraces the psychological without eschewing the spiritual. He uses apt words like "Silence" that resonate with the soul and spirit but don't obscure the meaning. In short, Robert clearly gets it and makes it easy for you to do likewise, if you're open to this stuff. I'd be very surprised if genuine seekers of Truthful experience weren't inspired and filled with joy by what this book has to offer, as I was... am... are...

Robert Sardello will take you into the crevices of your heart, but also your mind, on a profound experience of the Great Silence as a living, ever-expanding phenomenal. Once you join him on this journey you won't be the same. Only somenoe who has experienced the nature of silence could possibly desribe the crossing-over with the elegance and gracious detail as Sardello. I am gifting this book to my friends who are on the wondering and glorious passage toward deeper awareness, and who long to rest in the ever present Silence.

As a vowed contemplative living a vow of Silence, so reading much about silence the last 25 years, I found this to be one of the most novel, well-written treatments of silence. This is not a religious look at silence, yet I found it applicable to religious and non-religious alike. The author's spouse provides captivating introductions to each chapter, also. This is a tome one will likely need to read more than once, for it is dense, like venturing into a territory few of us are introduced to prior - including those among us who have been trained in a contemplative practice and life. I rarely rate a book five, and could not do otherwise for this one.

There are so many methods in this book which bring together daily life and the workings of the spiritual realm. When I read at the end that Robert has a school it made sense that this is a teaching book. I also looked forward to the recapture of the essence of each chapter in poetry by Cheryl. Thank you for this guide.

I didn't understand silence before. I went into retreat wanting an outcome, always with an agenda, I think. Now I understand what Silence is and how much better to approach it, with no agenda, how to welcome it and invite it into my life. The Title of the book, Silence: The Mystery of Wholeness is true. If our goal as human beings is to be whole, then allowing the Silence to enter and permeate our lives is truly a mystery as how wholeness comes out of it. You begin to feel at one with who you are, who God is, who you are in the Universe and feel truly at one with it. I had no idea such wholeness can come out of silence. I thought you had to pray and pray all the time with words and ask and ask and ask, but with silence wholeness comes naturally and you are part of the healing process of the universe. Thank you Robert Sardello for writing this important book and Richard Rohr for referring to it as something very important to read in "The Immortal Diamond: Finding your True Self".

Silence is beyond words. It brings a deep peace and tranquility. Going within to experience this silence brings a sense of iinterconnectedness with all life regardless of its form. The heart holds this secret of oneness and others feel safe around us. To gain and hold this experience the mind needs to be lovingly restored to stillness. JHD.

At first I was going to title my review, "Extraordinary achievement in the phenomenology of mindfulness," but the contemplative approach that Sardello describes is in some ways the antithesis of focusing the mind's awareness. I practice centering prayer, which encourages quieting of the mind by letting go of the mind's need to be constantly in charge, even during meditation. Sardello, over a lifetime of contemplative silence, has become aware of, and can accurately and objectively describe, its texture, tendencies, and patterns, precisely because he somewhere learned to stop narrating the experience and notice, through heart-awareness more than mental focus, what was actually going on in the very dynamic statement we call "silence." I heartily recommend this book to any serious contemplative. Even if you vehemently disagree with him, I think you have to reckon with his report from the phenomenological frontiers of our consciousness.

Read this book and you'll never think of silence in the same way again! Silence is not just the absence of sound, but rather the "sprirt" that pervades, surrounds and carresses us every moment of our lives. The amazing part of this book is that it contains exercises to enhance your perception of silence and lead you into nonduality. Imagine that--exercises that lead you to nonduality! I've been on a quest for "spiritual enlightenment" in my life for some time now, and this book, perhaps more than any other has helped me to grow spiritually. Mind you, this is not light reading. The text is dense and each sentence provides opportunity for reflection and growth. But you will be rewarded with insight about silence and meditation that is profound and enlightenng. I highly recommend this book!

Sardello's Buch als Empfehlung von Richard Rohr stellt 'Silence' (ein adäquates Wort im Deutschen zu finden, fällt mir schwer) als einen Raum der göttlichen Präsenz dar, den es zu erkunden gilt. Dabei spielen Religion oder Glaubensbekenntnis keinerlei Rolle, sondern lediglich die Bereitschaft, sich "den Wärtern der Stille" zu stellen und neugierig sowie mutig genug zu sein, sich diesem ständig verfügbaren Raum göttlicher Präsenz zu stellen. Ein grossartiges Buch eines weisen Mannes, eines Mystikers, der es schaffte, mich völlig in den Bann zu ziehen und mir neue bzw. andere Sichtweisen zu vermitteln. Ein "anspruchs-volles" Buch in doppeltem Sinne: eloquent geschrieben und zum Nachdenken und Vorfühlen/tasten mehr als nur geeignet. Was ich besonders schätze: Sardello lädt durch praktische Übungen ein, eigene Erfahrungen zu machen. DANKE!

This book was a recommended in one of Richard Rohrs books so no need to take my word for it. When I struggle a book always seems to appear and this was mine for this moment. My gratitude to Robert Sardello for taking the time to share his understanding.

A very introspective and important exploration of the deepest corners of Silence and the soul. A true treasure in troubled times and an Oasis of peace and tranquility.

Having now lived, on and off, for two years with this work I can say that Silence is gestated over nine chapters conducting us through the various ways we encounter and enter into silence in healing, prayer, meditation, daily life, etc, etc. It might take you nine months to get acclimatized to this work, however. Why? Because if you are honest, to almost every other book you ever read you brought the anticaption of 'getting something from it' in some way, whether that be infomation, spirituality, a good story, or to meet certain other needs... or get some knowledge you could later apply, or even (or should that be 'most typically) to have one's beliefs confirmed. This book is its own application (which poetry is) in resisting again and again our bringing to it what we think we know, or our attempts to acquire something. To find such application in what is ostensibly a prose work takes me back every time I open its delicious pages. Silence steeps one in the inner expansion of the silence it opens one to, making 'reviewing' it very difficult. It doesn't surprise me there are no other reviews posted here. Sardello explains that the whole book arises from years of workshop practice on silence and the opening chapter, `An Entry', explains the author's intent and claim (that may only be tested against one's own reading): "If you read carefully and thoughtfully and relinquish running after information, you will be well on the way toward the formation of new capacities. A significant alteration in your consciousness will take place. Any of the stated practices are not more than particular points of emphasis that help you slow down and stay within the process that the writing takes you through." I find it dropping from my hand, as heavy as lead, after a couple of paragraphs or a single sentence, resisting being read without ones implicit surrender, body and soul to the words themselves, to the activity that the reading entails. It makes you more alert or puts you straight to sleep! There are occasions where I marvelled at how a dense sentence lasting several lines arrives only to a sweet resounding after-taste, with the very last, ripe word. In the light of this I found the intro by one Shroeder-Sheker inevitably rather noisy compared with text itself, full of brusque intimations of tradition and theology. However, she points out, in an image I cherish and enjoy, how the structure of Silence offers a "fugue" to the "prelude" of each chapter (written by one Cheryl Sanders-Sardello) in the form of a page of itallicised prose-poetry, a beautifully expressed riff on, and in, silence - each piece reflecting in its unique tone and colour something of what Sardello has explored with us in the prior chapter. I hesitate to quote any example of even a sentence from either Cheryl or Robert Sardello, wanting not to prejudice anyone, or getting them thinking that they might know what each fresh, always surprising sentence invites to. See earlier editions of this work on Amazon.com for more reviews. *** Silence can be read on its own, or as a vital companion to "Love and the Soul" 2009. Back in 2002 Sardello expressed concern over his use of the expression "Sophia" in his book Love and the World. "I have since stopped speaking of Sophia at all and have discovered the mode of Sophia-awareness rather than the "religious" or "feminist" or whatever concept of Sophia one begins with...." Thus he describes his book Silence, "as the phenomenology of 'Sophia-awareness'.... I don't speak the name [Sophia] in the book and feel we have to drop all such naming; too much baggage, particularly around religious notions". By the time "Love and the Soul" came around, however, in a revised and added to 2009 edition, Sardello had returned to speaking the name 'Sophia' with renewed vision. Hence the added 'Sophia' chapters in the 2009 edition of "Love and the Soul' are not to be missd by devotees of divine wisdom and spiritual alchemy. They represent a glorious, experiental practice, a summit in prose writing in this field. There is a vital dialogue at work between 'Love and the World' and 'Silence' which nevertheless can by read on their own. Both are practices, read by body as much as the intellect. Sardello takes Jung and takes Steiner and creates something completely new for the 21st century that inspires each of us to create something new from our own reading. Great for all 'listeners'. Pure gold for heart mind and soul.

The most wonderful book I've read in a long time. I've long practiced Silence, especially since joining the Quakers, but this book taught me, in a very practical way, more about the experience of Silence than I knew there was. It has deepened and enriched my experience beyond measure and I highly recommend it. (All this despite its rather high price for an ebook!) Just reading it leads one into the experience.