That Silent Center

DHS 133



I ran across this quote from Joseph Campbell in a book i was reading today:

There’s a center of quietness within, which has to be known and held. If you lose that center, you are in tension and begin to fall apart.

The Power of Myth
Joseph Campbell

... and as soon as i read it i was immediately reminded of the same sentiments spelled out in The Four Quartets so i ran off to look that up:

At the still point of the turning world. Neither flesh nor fleshless;
Neither from nor towards; at the still point, there the dance is,
But neither arrest nor movement. And do not call it fixity,
Where past and future are gathered. Neither movement from nor towards,
Neither ascent nor decline. Except for the point, the still point,
There would be no dance, and there is only the dance.
I can only say, there we have been: but I cannot say where.
And I cannot say, how long, for that is to place it in time.

The Four Quartets
T.S. Eliot

At that silent center, reachable only by crawling through those gaps between two thoughts, there is no place and there is no time, there is just simply Being. Eliot says, "I can only say, there we have been." I would say, "I can only say, there I Am," for if there is no time, how can he say "we have been?"