Maude Smith's Correspondence with The Mother

18 January 1960

Gracious Divine Mother,

The realisation has come to me that silence has nothing to do with the absence of sound, but is something in itself, a positive quality almost living and vibrant, almost visible, part of the essential nature of things.

Quite correct.

Everything I see—clouds, leaves, flowers, walls, clothing, people, food, the cells of the body—all are silent, and in that silence they do their work according to the law of their nature. The effect of their movement—the rustling of leaves, the striking of hammer on steel—is something quite apart from this silence which is in the nature of the things themselves.

Sometimes I feel like a person alone in a silent world. For a short time I felt that in a few things, especially trees, there was an intense joy of silence and I also could feel that joy.

Mother, 0 Mother, I aspire to become aware of this silence in myself and, if it be the truth, as myself.

Good.

A long time ago, when I was trying to find you within myself, you seemed to say that if the inner road was blocked I might try the outside path for a while—opening myself to beauty and wonder, joy and laughter, as when I was a child. But I was not able or not willing, and I kept crying and pounding at the locked inner door, closing my eyes and my heart to all the things around me which I had always loved.

But Mother, my windows are all on the outside, and the Divine is universal as well as immanent. Surely if I remain open and sensitive to these things which you are showing to me in a new light, responding to them with joy or simply observing them with the wide-open, quiet eyes of a little child, not only will I find you in them, but in the right time and way the inner doors also will open.

Quite true.

All is in your good hands. I trust myself to you utterly.

My dear child,

Your experiences are excellent and quite on the right track.

Go on opening your eyes and your heart to the whole world and you are sure to meet the Divine there.

With love and blessings

18 January 1960