(no subject)

Teach us to care and not to care
Teach us to be still.
--T.S. Eliot, "Ash-Wednesday"

Only in silence the word,
only in dark the light,
only in dying life:
bright the hawk's flight
on the empty sky.
--Ursula K. Le Guin, "The Creation of Éa"

You do not need to leave your room.
Just remain sitting at your table and listen.
You do not even need to listen. Just wait.
You do not even need to wait. Just remain still, silent and solitary,
And the world will offer itself to you to be unmasked.
It has no choice.
It will roll in ecstasy at your feet.
--Franz Kafka, "Reflections"