These talks explore the universal question: What is the meaning of life? In the fourth century, John Casslan and his companion Germanus travel to the Egyptian desert to seek the answer from Abba Moses. In a more ancient Indian story from the Upanishads, a father sends his son to Yama, the god of death, to ask the same question. 

Laurence Freeman uses what we learn from these stories to explore the meaning for our time. He unifies the perspectives, ancient and modern, with the image of a wave – a dispersion of energy from a point of origin as when a stone drops into water; with the sound from a musical instrument; and other metaphors. Meaning is found most deeply, he concludes, in the wave-motion of stillness, the flow of love Itself.  

These talks were given at a weeklong silent retreat at Monte Oliveto, Italy, in August 2009.