The Way of Stillness
Sit times for the journey within
from seed to sapling, from sapling to tree
In a world of constant motion, Sit Times offer a sacred pause, a return to stillness, breath, and the quiet awareness beneath thought.
Here, the journey unfolds slowly, from seed to sapling, from sapling to tree, until silence itself becomes your teacher.
Each Sit Time weaves gentle teaching with guided practice, inviting you into the deeper rhythm of Presence, a way of seeing, resting, and becoming more fully alive.
The way of stillness is not upward but inward, a spiral that deepens with every return.
For some, the best way to engage is simply to step inside and start. If you’re looking for the tools of stillness, The Garden Shed is a quiet corner where you’ll find guided sits, teachings, and soundscapes to help you begin right away. Enter The Garden Shed,
However, if you’d like to follow the path more slowly, from seed to sapling, from sapling to tree, keep reading below to explore the journey of Tending the Garden.
About This Practice.
These Sit Times are not exercises to master, but invitations to return, again and again, to the stillness at the heart of things.
Each sit blends a short teaching with a time of guided silence. You can begin anywhere, but most people start with The Seed Stage, a gentle introduction to Centring Prayer and the rhythm of inner stillness.
The journey is not linear or upward. It moves in widening circles, returning, deepening, softening, like the rings of a tree or the spiral of the butterfly’s path. Each round through the stages reveals new layers of Presence.
Choose the time that feels right for today. Sit with open hands. Let silence do its quiet work within you.
If you’re new to contemplative practice, begin with “The Seed.”
Five minutes is enough to begin the journey.
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Learning to Be Still
From Seed to Sapling - The Beginnings of Presence
Every journey of stillness begins in hiddenness. The sapling stage invites you to slow down, breathe, and learn the gentle rhythm of returning to your Inner Room. Through short teachings and guided sits, from seed to sprout to sapling, we begin to sense the love that holds all things. These early practices root the soul in quiet trust, where growth unfolds naturally in the light of grace.
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Abiding in the Space Between
From Sapling to Tree, Deepening in Presence
As the tree matures, its roots deepen, and its branches reach toward light. This stage invites you to rest more deeply in silence, to abide rather than strive. Through longer sits and reflective teachings, we discover what it means to live within the flow of Love, Light, and Life, the living Trinity that holds every breath. Here, the practice becomes less about doing and more about being.
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Living from the Inner Room
The Mature Oak, The Trinity Alive Within
In time, stillness becomes a way of life. The mature oak stands as a symbol of integration, rooted, spacious, and awake. These sits invite you to carry the contemplative stance into everyday moments, where prayer and life are one. Here, the inner and outer merge, and love breathes through all that is. The journey continues not upward, but inward, from silence into life itself.
This is not a climb to the summit, but a slow circling toward the heart.
THE SAPLING STAGE
Learning to be Still
From Seed to Sapling - The Beginnings of Presence
Every journey of stillness begins in hiddenness.
The sapling stage invites you to slow down, breathe, and learn the gentle rhythm of returning to your Inner Room.
Through short teachings and guided sits, from seed to sprout to sapling, we begin to sense the Love that holds all things.
These early practices root the soul in quiet trust, where growth unfolds naturally in the light of grace.
The Seed – The Hidden Beginning
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Every journey begins unseen.
The seed lies hidden in darkness, held by warmth and soil, silent, waiting, alive with potential.
In this first Sit, we begin to notice what has always been true: we are already held in Love.
The invitation is simple, to enter the Inner Room not to achieve, but to receive.
The Sprout – Turning Toward the Light
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The sprout breaks through the soil, sensing light before it sees it.
It moves by instinct, drawn by something greater than itself.
So too, we turn toward the Christ-light that stirs within.
When we see from that inner eye, separation dissolves, everything becomes sacred.
The Sapling – Growing Steady in Stillness
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As the sapling takes shape, it learns to hold its own weight, bending, not breaking.
Here, practice stabilises; stillness begins to stay.
We start recognising Presence not only when we sit, but as we live.
Prayer and being become one.
THE TREE STAGE
Abiding in the Space Between
The stillness that was once a practice becomes a relationship.
You begin to sense the living field of the Trinity,
Love, Light, and Life interwoven as one sacred movement.
Small Tree – Beginning to Abide
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Between the Father, Son, and Spirit flows a great current of Love, a circle of endless giving and receiving.
You, too, belong in that circle.
In this Sit, we rest in that truth, allowing the silence to hold us as the Trinity holds all creation.
Growing Tree – Strengthening in Presence
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The tree grows taller, its roots deep and unseen.
So too, the contemplative life matures quietly through repetition and surrender.
Presence becomes our posture, a quiet awareness of being held.
Full Tree – Abiding in Love
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As the sapling takes shape, it learns to hold its own weight, bending, not breaking.
Here, practice stabilises; stillness begins to stay.
We start recognising Presence not only when we sit, but as we live.
Prayer and being become one.
THE MATURE OAK STAGE
Living from the Inner Room
Eventually, practice dissolves into life.
Stillness becomes your natural rhythm: grounded, awake, and free.
This is the Mature Oak Stage: the fruit of a long faithfulness to silence.
The Mature Tree - The Trinity Within
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In the mature contemplative life, prayer and are one. The Inner Room expands beyond any boundary. Every moment becomes sacred ground.
The Oak - Love Embodied
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Ongoing Development.
The oak stands not as proof of achieved, but as witness to becoming.
Rooted deeply, reaching widely, it shelters others with its shade.
The soul becomes transparent to Love, and the world itself becomes the sanctuary.
Every garden needs a place of tending, a humble shed where the tools of growth are kept, where the hands of the heart find what they need for the work of stillness.
Here, in the Garden Shed, you’ll find simple, practical resources to nurture your contemplative rhythm, the tools, the watering, the nourishment that help Presence take root and grow.
Bruce and Sue Reflect:
Bruce : “You don’t need to know much to start, just turn up and get your hands dirty. Every season’s got it’s work: a bit of planting, a bit of pruning, a bit of rest.
The shed’s a good place to remember that what you need for the journey is already here, it’s just been waiting for you to begin.”
Sue: “Mmm… I like that, Bruce. The garden doesn’t hurry, and neither should we.
Stillness has its own seasons, and sometimes, the best thing you can do is put the tools down and just watch the light change.”
GUIDED SITS
The Practice Tools
5-minute Guided Sit
Coming Soon
10-minute Guided Sit
Coming Soon
Choose a gentle sit that suits your moment.
Begin with 5 minutes or rest longer in silence - 10, 15, 20, or 30 minutes.
Each sit invites you back to “tend the garden” of your Inner Room, to stillness beneath the noise, and to the simple awareness that you are held in Love.
15-minute Guided Sit
Coming Soon
20-minute Guided Sit
Coming Soon
30-minute Guided Sit
Coming Soon
UN-GUIDED SITS
The Silence Tools
5-minute Silent Sit
Coming Soon
10-minute Silent Sit
Coming Soon
Choose the time that suits your moment.
Begin with 5 minutes or rest longer in pure silence - 10, 15, 20, or 30 minutes. (After a Welcome and a Gong)
Each sit invites you back to “tend the garden” of your Inner Room, to a place of pure stillness beneath the noise.
15-minute Silent Sit
Coming Soon
20-minute Silent Sit
Coming Soon
30-minute Silent Sit
Coming Soon
TEACHINGS
The Fertiliser of Understanding
Teaching Audio
Coming Soon
Short reflections that feed the soil of the soul.
These teachings accompany the sits, offering gentle guidance for the deepening process, from seed to sapling, from sapling to oak.
They help the practice take root, clarifying what the mystics have always known: that Love is both the soil and the fruit.
SOUNDSCAPES
The Watering of the Heart
Soudscape Audio
Coming Soon
Sometimes all the garden needs is quiet rain.
These soundscapes, rain, forest, ocean, and dawn birdsong, create a space to simply rest and listen.
Let the sounds do the work; let your soul drink deeply.
Blessings & Prayers –
The Gentle Shade
When the day feels long, return here for brief prayers, poetic blessings, and words to steady the heart.
They remind us that stillness is not escape, but participation, the pulse of Love moving through all things.
The Garden Shed is always open.
Come as you are, take what you need, and let stillness do its quiet work.
Meet your guide
Brian walks the same path he invites others to explore, one of learning to listen, to rest, and to trust the quiet work of stillness.
His journey of faith is woven through family, loss, and the quiet work of grace.
Alongside Garry, his Christian contemplative path commenced in 2016 under the guidance of Pip Nicholls, who opened the way into what she calls the Heart of Hearts - the Inner Room within.
Since then, Brian’s journey has continued to deepen through the wisdom of the Christian contemplative tradition, inspired by the teachings of Pip Nicholls, the Centre for Action and Contemplation, Richard Rohr, and James Finley.
In his own gentle way, Brian simply shares what and how he practices.
He opens a quiet doorway, not with many words, but through stillness, humility, and welcome.
Those who sit with him often find themselves resting again in the Presence that has been there all along.
Closing Blessing
May these Sit Times root you in stillness,
and awaken you to the Love that breathes through all things.
May the seed of Presence grow in you, until the day you stand, steady as an oak, quietly proclaiming with your life:
Be still and know.
The way of stillness is the way home.
