Tan Amarasiri remembers when Ajahn Sumedho visited Tisarana two years earlier and he was sitting at the feet of Ajahn Sumedho watching the sunset and the silence in their presence is perceptible.

Does silence need to be complicated? Is it not a matter of being receptive, of waiting..?

He then talks about a depth of understanding possible in the Mangala Sutta. What is auspicious, that touches the heart? I am going to watch what's happening.

He references the last Stanza of the 38 Blessings of the Mangala Sutta, and asks is there something that is without sorrow, without stain that is safe an secure unshakeable ..is there something that remains steady if we can touch that - be with the silence, be in the background..then none of these things shake us. He asks..where does the joy spring from?

Life's Highest Blessings

The Maha Mangala Sutta translation and Commentary by Dr. R.L. Soni

https://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/soni/wheel254.html#ch4-1

Ajahn Viradhammo, speaking for the first time after the three month winter retreat, reflects on the realm of thought and its limitations. There was a tragic loss of lives in the Buddhist community in Ottawa. The feeling in the funeral home was heartbreaking, it was not thinking.

Tension, worry are not resolved with thinking. Try practicing a face meditation where one listens and waits abiding in and awakening to the way things are. The tension, worry opens with the attention of the heart. The tension in the face becomes known and resolved through this deeper feeling - the awareness and compassion available with the heart. The body comes alive, not through thought. This was very liberating, it can bring joy (mudita) to trust in awareness, a path with heart.