The goal of a quiet life needs to be clear: it aims to promote a restful, calm spirit where spiritual priorities become more and more dominant. This withdrawal is not an invitation to isolation and navel-gazing. Rather, it wishes to grant the possibility to penetrate deeper into reality and to live from the heart.

*Michael Casey, Trappist Monk

A great Yogini, or female Yogi, was deep in meditation. Suddenly, beautiful, melodious sounds she heard, as if from nowhere and everywhere. The music was the most lovely sound she had ever heard. The Yogini thought, "This music is truly wonderful, but it cannot be what I am here to discover. For if I were not here to hear it, it would not be." The music faded away. Next appeared the most amazing colors, such as no painter could paint and no flower display, for the colors were not of Earth. She thought, "This is astonishingly beautiful. However, this cannot be who I am and cannot be the Reality I wait to know, for it could not appear if I were not here to see it." This phenomenon, too, the Yogini ignored. Soon, it vanished in the presence of her deep, unmoving Silence. Shortly afterward, several beings appeared, shaped as if from pure light. They floated through space, smiling kindly at her in a welcoming way. She felt profoundly touched by loving emotions. She kept her composure. "How profound," she thought, "but this cannot be what is the unchanging Reality, for were I not here, who would see them?" As soon as this insight arose, the figures vanished. Her mind entered her Heart and could no more produce any effects. In deep Silence her mind merged inside her essential Being. Then, the Yogini experienced Presence beyond all transitory and even blissful states of mind.