`How mistaken people are in thinking that silence is necessarily the desert, the void, the lack of any activity, any creation, in a word, nothing! In reality, there is silence and silence, and in a general way, we can say that there are two kinds: that of death and that of higher life. It is precisely this silence of higher life that must be understood and which we speak of here. This silence is not stagnation, but an intense work that takes place in the bosom of absolute harmony. It is also not a void, an absence, but a fullness compared to that experienced by two beings united by a great love and who live something so deep that they cannot express it with movements or words. Silence is a virtue of the inner life.` [Excerpt from the text on the back cover of the edition]