You know the feeling of studying a new language?  You use it as much use as possible, but still you are not fluent.  That is me and transcendentalism. I am learning the bones of being totally present, and I am just sharing as I learn.  There are speakers who are fluent: Thomas Merton, Ekhart Tolle, Richard Rohr, George Fox to name a few. I recommend reading any of them or other mystics that focus on the need for mindfulness in having a good life balance.  I am trying to learn from them what it means to be present and mindful, both of the naturally occurring spaciousness and meditative times of transcendence.

Andy Puddicombe is a Buddhist monk.  He became a monk to learn a new way of being in the world.  He suggests that to become more present, we need to concentrate on sensing our own selves without thinking anything, blocking all of the thoughts and senses.  He says that the mind that is totally quieted is the real self.  This self is what Jesus was talking about when he said, “Come to me who are heavy burdened and I will give you rest.”  When you are in a state of being right now in total awareness, you feel lighter in your soul and the silence begins to refresh your soul.

In the pew holsters that hold the song books and visitors’ cards, there is a new laminated sheet.  You approved it at the August 2, 2026 meeting for worship with attention to business.  If you don’t mind, take it out.  It has a quote written on it that is about silence.  Do you see the quote from William Penn? “True silence is the rest of the mind and is to the spirit what sleep is to the body, nourishment and refreshment.”

Our silence is about twenty minutes long when we worship on programmed Sundays and about thirty to forty minutes on the first Sunday of the month.  But when Quakers began, the times of unprogrammed worship were much longer, all day in some cases. It was believed that those speaking had been gifted by God with a unique message that needed to be shared with the whole meeting.  The sharing was typically profound.  The main focus of the meditation portion of worship was to refresh the soul with true silence, or silence that avoids all thoughts when possible and to provide a direct unmitigated connection with the Divine.  Most of us, me included, have a hard time quieting the mind to stillness, but if we want to benefit of worship, we not only need to learn to do this on Sundays but twenty minutes every day.  It will change your life.

The monk, Andy Puddicombe reminds us to watch your mind as if it were agitated, and the stillness is the balm.  Watch your mind.  Step back and be the viewer of your mind. 

There are times we naturally silence the mind, and we do, and we like those times, when we can think of nothing but this present minute.  For instance, when you see something that is awesome, that seeing puts you in a state of awe, some natural beauty.  You can stop and look at it intently and intentionally feel its texture, take in its color, embrace the joy it brings.  The song “How Great Thou Art” refers to this awesome response to the Divine presence in nature.  This is also true when you are petting your dog or your cat.  You think, then you stop thinking and you just feel the hair on that animal and you get a streaming sense of joy. Your stream of thought has subsided for a moment, and you think only in the moment — no thought at all, just loving our animals.  The same is true of watching an aquarium.  It gives us peace to quiet our mind and concentrate on the graceful movements in the water.  These actions have been scientifically proven to be good for your health, both physical and mental.  And they are fun, so it makes it even more important to do the things that quiet your mind.

The mind that is free has all the responsibilities and all the judgments set to the side.  Suddenly you are in the present moment.  This is true of time spent in meditation and in yoga.  Those are times of prayer where we close out the problems of the world for an hour or half hour and just focus on right now without letting your mind ruminate.  It is no longer a mind that feeds on thoughts.

This is true of giving ourselves a vacation from reacting to stress. The ego feeds on stress and pressure and goals and getting there.  The heart prays better when our burdens are light.  We are told to live with integrity in all things and to live in simplicity in all things and peace with ourselves and all others.  Imagine each of these for a moment in relation to being present.

When you live with integrity you have no need to worry or hide or fear of getting into trouble or found out.  It is important to tell the truth and to live in all honesty.  Living for Christ or like Jesus taught and Christ still teaches, with integrity in all things, lightens our minds and keeps them from having to focus on the negative.  We can focus on the positive and the now.  Like the verse that Margo read.  We are to concentrate on thinking of things that are good, true, lovely, honorable, and righteous.  This means without judgment of yourself or others.  Just what is good, true, honorable — positive attributes of the world.

Think now on what it means to live with simplicity.  You are not to try and get more than what you need.  It means letting go of ego that says you need more of something to matter.  Greed and coveting are less of a temptation when we focus on simplicity.  There is no more trying to get more than the neighbors or to become richer than your parents or advance farther in your job than they did.  We also have to face our environments as they are, because we can’t make ourselves feel good by shopping therapy.  Instead, we have to try to appreciate what we have and make do when we can live with what we have.

Lastly, think about what is peaceful and how to be peaceful with yourself and others.  How can you be more gracious and compassionate with yourself?  In what ways does living peaceably with others make your life easier?  It is not about not having a conflict.  It is about being able to separate ourselves and our thoughts.  This helps to quiet our minds and allows us just to be and to be open to whatever the moment  brings. Sometimes we think we need to go out in nature and just clear our minds.  Imagine you are with a friend you trust completely and you do not have to have guards.  That could be your relationship with the Divine.  Or maybe there is someone in whom you are just able to feel like yourself, they make you a better person, better being able to live according to your morals and beliefs.  This brings some peace. But first we have to try and be peaceful with ourselves and others.  That doesn’t mean not having any boundaries.  But in a tense moment, we can step back from our thoughts and take a deep breath before we respond.  That way we give ourselves more choices and more space in which to think.  Boundaries drawn when one is being mindful can be very healthy to relationships and sometimes, we have to say things that are hard to say or be heard, but if we do it with grace and mindfulness then we give the best that we can to the situation.  It is important to try and be at your best self when you are relating to others.

Ekhart Tolle says, “You can consciously make a choice, even if it is a time of difficult emotions, not a permanent state of unshakeable calm…It is the presence of awareness alongside whatever arises moment to moment so that you are not simply a puppet of old conditioning, but a conscious participant in your own life, capable again and again of choosing presence over pattern and response over reaction.” For me you can and I can choose stillness. And find that gap between reaction and response and stop the response until I have let go of the reactive state.

This stillness is covered in the poem by that name that is on the laminated sheet.  It now gives the author’s name, Christine Odell.  She wrote it in 1990.  When we go into silence today, I am not going to ask you too many queries but hope you take the time to get to know the laminated sheet, what it says, the poem, what it is about, and then we will sit in silence unless led to speak. We will try to silence our minds to see if we can refresh them and enjoy this time of connection to the Greater Good.

This person that you are when you are totally in a state of awareness is you, the real you.  The behavior we display when we are not in the state of awareness Eckhart Tolle called “our pain body”.  It reacts to stimuli, particularly triggers from our past wounds, and muddies up the waters of our souls.  Instead, we need to take the time to respond, take a breath, count to ten, give ourselves a moment of peace when we are stressed, allow our souls to be nourished simply by waiting between stimulus and response.

I have a temper.  I don’t know if it is an Irish temper or because of neglect and abuse as a child or all three.  I just know I can get angry and have to take time to slow my thoughts and check my actions, especially my words, when my adrenaline is pumping.  But that does not mean I need to be unresponsive.  In fact, when I respond out of presence I am nearest to the real me.

Eckhart Tolle says, “Responding with presence does not mean becoming passive or suppressing your needs or pretending everything is fine when it isn’t.  Responses that come from presence are often more direct, more honest, and more effective reactions … because they’re not clouded by the need to win, to punish or to defend an old wound.  A boundary set from presence sounds different than a boundary set from reactive anger.  It is clear, it is firm, but it does not carry the same charge of aggression or the same residue of old pain. People often sense this difference intuitively even if they cannot articulate it.”

Presence can help you respond like you without all the fight or flight chemicals.  You are mainly making still these responses when you seek presence.  But once you are in a habit of making still these responses and giving yourself the space to find your bearings and speak or act from your presence, you are being your true self.

Some queries to ask yourself today are “When do I react, and when I do, how can I take time to respond with presence.”  You can practice being present as part of waiting worship.  As you go into silence, you can be aware of your thoughts and quiet them.  You can see how long you can go between thoughts.  Just listen to the silence.  Allow your soul time to replenish and refresh.  Then once we are finished with the worship service today, try to do twenty minutes a day of seeking the presence of just being still.  It will help you make better decisions and give you an opportunity to live more freely from old reactions and be in the present now.

• How can you be more gracious and compassionate with yourself? 
• In what ways does living peaceably with others make your life easier? 
• When do I react, and when I do, how can I take time to respond with presence?