Book Review: A Sunlit Absence<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I have read quite a few books about contemplation and people who practice it as I have become one of those people. \u00a0For me, those books often tend to be\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/strategicmonk\/2011\/11\/17\/book-review-a-sunlit-absence\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Book Review: A Sunlit Absence\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I have read quite a few books about contemplation and people who practice it as I have become one of those people. \u00a0For me, those books often tend to be\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/strategicmonk\/2011\/11\/17\/book-review-a-sunlit-absence\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Strategic Monk\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-11-17T13:04:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.production.patheos.com\/blogs\/strategicmonk\/files\/2011\/11\/screen-shot-2011-11-16-at-1-36-28-pm.png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Greg Richardson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Greg Richardson\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/strategicmonk\/2011\/11\/17\/book-review-a-sunlit-absence\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/strategicmonk\/2011\/11\/17\/book-review-a-sunlit-absence\/\",\"name\":\"Book Review: A Sunlit Absence\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/strategicmonk\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-11-17T13:04:15+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-11-17T13:04:15+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/strategicmonk\/#\/schema\/person\/0b0eb7359880aab2bcad8122aed09b72\"},\"description\":\"I have read quite a few books about contemplation and people who practice it as I have become one of those people. \u00a0For me, those books often tend to be\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/strategicmonk\/2011\/11\/17\/book-review-a-sunlit-absence\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/strategicmonk\/2011\/11\/17\/book-review-a-sunlit-absence\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/strategicmonk\/2011\/11\/17\/book-review-a-sunlit-absence\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/strategicmonk\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Book Review: A Sunlit Absence\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/strategicmonk\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/strategicmonk\/\",\"name\":\"Strategic Monk\",\"description\":\"Discerning. Monastic Strategy. Spiritual Practices.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/strategicmonk\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/strategicmonk\/#\/schema\/person\/0b0eb7359880aab2bcad8122aed09b72\",\"name\":\"Greg Richardson\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/strategicmonk\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ae21a6f9256bdd602591377a6c5fb337?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ae21a6f9256bdd602591377a6c5fb337?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Greg Richardson\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/strategicmonk\/author\/gdrichardson\/\"}]}<\/script>\n","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Book Review: A Sunlit Absence","description":"I have read quite a few books about contemplation and people who practice it as I have become one of those people. \u00a0For me, those books often tend to be","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/strategicmonk\/2011\/11\/17\/book-review-a-sunlit-absence\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Book Review: A Sunlit Absence","og_description":"I have read quite a few books about contemplation and people who practice it as I have become one of those people. \u00a0For me, those books often tend to be","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/strategicmonk\/2011\/11\/17\/book-review-a-sunlit-absence\/","og_site_name":"Strategic Monk","article_published_time":"2011-11-17T13:04:15+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/wp.production.patheos.com\/blogs\/strategicmonk\/files\/2011\/11\/screen-shot-2011-11-16-at-1-36-28-pm.png"}],"author":"Greg Richardson","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Greg Richardson","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/strategicmonk\/2011\/11\/17\/book-review-a-sunlit-absence\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/strategicmonk\/2011\/11\/17\/book-review-a-sunlit-absence\/","name":"Book Review: A Sunlit Absence","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/strategicmonk\/#website"},"datePublished":"2011-11-17T13:04:15+00:00","dateModified":"2011-11-17T13:04:15+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/strategicmonk\/#\/schema\/person\/0b0eb7359880aab2bcad8122aed09b72"},"description":"I have read quite a few books about contemplation and people who practice it as I have become one of those people. \u00a0For me, those books often tend to be","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/strategicmonk\/2011\/11\/17\/book-review-a-sunlit-absence\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/strategicmonk\/2011\/11\/17\/book-review-a-sunlit-absence\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/strategicmonk\/2011\/11\/17\/book-review-a-sunlit-absence\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/strategicmonk\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Book Review: A Sunlit Absence"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/strategicmonk\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/strategicmonk\/","name":"Strategic Monk","description":"Discerning. Monastic Strategy. Spiritual Practices.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/strategicmonk\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/strategicmonk\/#\/schema\/person\/0b0eb7359880aab2bcad8122aed09b72","name":"Greg Richardson","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/strategicmonk\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ae21a6f9256bdd602591377a6c5fb337?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ae21a6f9256bdd602591377a6c5fb337?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"Greg Richardson"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/strategicmonk\/author\/gdrichardson\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/strategicmonk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/strategicmonk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/strategicmonk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/strategicmonk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2924"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/strategicmonk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1479"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/strategicmonk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1479\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/strategicmonk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/strategicmonk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/strategicmonk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

{"id":1479,"date":"2011-11-17T05:04:15","date_gmt":"2011-11-17T13:04:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/strategicmonk.com\/?p=1479"},"modified":"2011-11-17T05:04:15","modified_gmt":"2011-11-17T13:04:15","slug":"book-review-a-sunlit-absence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/strategicmonk\/2011\/11\/17\/book-review-a-sunlit-absence\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: A Sunlit Absence"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

$\"\"$ <\/a><\/p>\n

A Sunlit Absence<\/a> by Martin Laird is a companion volume to his 2006 book, Into the Silent Land<\/a>. \u00a0While each book stands on its own, I recommend that both of them. Together, these books give clear, insightful descriptions of and help with contemplation and the contemplative life. \u00a0Each has made dramatic contributions to my own contemplative practices.<\/p>\n

Subtitled Silence, Awareness, and Contemplation<\/em>, A Sunlit Absence<\/a>\u00a0begins with a brief description of the first volume. \u00a0From that foundation, the author explores the deeper and wider context of awareness, and the ways in which silence and contemplation help our awareness grow.<\/p>\n

Each section illustrates the experiences of specific individuals which describe how some people recognize the benefits of contemplative life. For example, in a chapter about boredom, he describes the experiences of two people which he opens to show deeper truths about boredom in contemplation. The personal stories help me connect with the depth of awareness and contemplation in more practical ways.<\/p>\n

I think the chapter I appreciate the most is called The Open Porches of the Mind, and focuses on silence and noise. The chapter describes the varieties of silence, and all the things silence does other than be quiet. It also talks about how practicing little silences each day helps prepare us to receive what the deeper Silence gas to offer.<\/p>\n

I have begun to learn the lessons of silence, awareness, and contemplation; I am a beginner. The magnitude of what they offer can be overwhelming, and very intimidating.\u00a0 A Sunlit Absence<\/a> helps me work through that intimidation and experience the depth and richness that is there.<\/p>\n

What helps you overcome your obstacles to depth and richness in your own life?<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"