It was two thirty in the morning. I sat in silence, trying to rest into stillness. The world around me slept, yet within me, a gentle inquiry stirred: Why is it that only certain traditions teach us to dwell in this quiet space?
In my journey through interfaith dialogue, I’ve noticed something curious. In Buddhist practice—and in the Advaita Vedanta stream of Hinduism—stillness isn’t peripheral. It’s central. These traditions invite us, again and again, to be. To rest, not just physically, but inwardly. To let go of striving, stories, even self, and to dwell in the deep, felt presence of this very moment.
Yet in Judeo-Christian traditions, though rich in prayer, justice, and community, the practice of stillness often seems harder to find. It’s not that it doesn’t exist—it does. The Psalms offer, “Be still and know that I am God.” Christian mystics, Jewish Kabbalists, and solitary monks across centuries have spoken of the silence where God is most intimately known. But somehow, for many practitioners today, the embodied experience of silence and inward stillness is rarely cultivated or taught.
Why is that?
Perhaps it’s because Western religious traditions have long emphasized doing—serving, obeying, proclaiming, believing. These are beautiful, powerful acts. Yet they can eclipse the quieter invitation: to rest in the Divine without needing to understand, explain, or prove.
Stillness, after all, is not emptiness. It is the fertile ground from which love, compassion, and insight can grow. It is the place where breath returns to breath, and the soul remembers itself—not as an idea, but as a living presence.
As someone walking the interfaith path, I find hope here. Stillness can be a meeting ground—not a dogma, but a practice. A place where traditions speak not about the sacred, but from it.
Whether you call it God, the Divine, Buddha-nature, or simply the Mystery—stillness is where it lives in us.
Maybe now is the time to rekindle that thread. To remind ourselves, and one another, that beyond all teachings and texts, there is a silence waiting to be heard.
🙏🕊🙏
Inspirations of Love and Hope 
Thank you 🙏