Fifty contemplations
All day a commentary runs. Underneath it, rarely heard, is you.
Fifty short contemplations, two small pages each. Most books about the mind add to the noise. This one keeps falling silent to let you listen.
A few pages
Read one of the fifty
On Resisting Suffering
If I resist my suffering, I empower it to destroy me.
I am prone to feeling psychological pain and suffering. It might appear as an inconspicuous grain of irritation, or as a more prominent anxiety. Whenever suffering stares into my soul with its burning eyes, I feel it at full capacity; it is not relative, but always pure, pristine, sincere, and it devours all the space within.
I cannot escape my suffering through thinking: it is not as bad as it seems, I have experienced worse than this, millions of people are in a worse situation than I am, I know someone who has been through the same. Avoiding, denying and resisting the feeling of suffering using the tools of thinking only empowers the feeling.
I can see through my suffering only when facing it directly. Facing my suffering does not mean acknowledging its external causes, but gazing into the relentless eyes of the feeling itself. As I approach it, its eyes burn my own like a thousand suns. They scorch my spirit to ashes. They imprison me in dark and lifeless dungeons bearing the names of fear, hate, anxiety, grief, regret and worry.
However, beyond all that, after walking through all the agony, I merge with my feeling. I become aware of something that has been in the background all the time: compassion. It is not the limited compassion created by my mind, but something happening deeper within me. That compassion is without an object, and therefore all objects are embraced by it, including my suffering.
Because I hold the ability to feel suffering within me, I can also feel it in another. Suffering in its purest form is the same in all living beings as it is in me. Therefore I feel compassion for all living beings. When I try to resist or avoid my suffering, I am escaping the world around me, and escaping from the world means denying myself.
I can release myself from the prison of my suffering only by stepping closer to the feeling of it. In the silence of the mind, I can do so with unlimited compassion.
Forty-nine more, each one waiting on its own page.
From readers
What readers say
Jussi Niittyviita presents a perfect balance between being approachable and finding depth on the journey into inner peace. A profound peace of literature.
Seeker of Silences is rated 4.8 from 6 reader ratings.
The book
Seeker of Silences
Fifty contemplations, about 120 pages, as EPUB and PDF
Each one opens with a single line and stays with it for two pages
Instant download, read on any phone, tablet, Kindle or computer
Instant download after payment: EPUB for Kindle, Apple Books and Kobo, PDF for everything else. Secure checkout by Shopify. VAT included where it applies.
There is an audiobook too, two hours and eleven minutes in my own voice. It is not sold separately; it comes with The Complete Library.
Questions
How do I read it?
You get an EPUB and a PDF the moment you pay, by email and on a download page. EPUB opens in Apple Books, Kobo, Google Play Books and Kindle (send it to your Kindle email). PDF opens anywhere.
Do I read it front to back?
You can, but it was not built that way. Each contemplation stands alone. Most readers keep it by the bed and read one at a time.
Is it religious?
No. There is nothing to believe and no practice to adopt. The voice says I, not you, and somewhere down each page the I quietly becomes yours.
Is there an audiobook?
Yes, two hours and eleven minutes, read in my own voice, with each of the fifty contemplations as its own track so you can take one at a time. It is not sold on its own and it is not on Audible. It comes with The Complete Library, along with the other audiobooks.
What if it is not for me?
Write to me within 30 days and I refund you. Keep the file.
The other books
Different doors into the same quiet. Begin anywhere.
The Sound of the Bells
A man is given three months to live, walks out of the hospital and follows a dream to a fishing village, where an old man under a coconut tree asks him one question. A short novel about the end of mind-made suffering, and the peace that was underneath it all along. If you read one of my books, read this one first.
A Year of Stillness
My year in northern Finland, day by day: client meetings, daycare, the night shift, the sauna. Stillness noticed inside an ordinary working life, not apart from it.
I Forgive You
A letter to you. Forgiveness treated not as a duty but as an unexpected key: the moment you stop carrying what was never yours, peace is what remains.
We Were Once Human
Nine chapters, each opening in nature, on what lies past the self we defend. A plain definition of transcendence for people allergic to gurus.
An Inquiry Into Reality
An inquiry into what is actually here once the labels fall away. It ends with one instruction: be kind.
7 Days of Presence
Seven days, seven doors: attention, silence, acceptance, now, the self, forgiveness, rest. A short teaching for each day, questions to sit with, and the whole course read in my own voice.
The Complete Library
All seven books, the seven-day course with its audio, and the audiobooks of A Year of Stillness and Seeker of Silences in my own voice. Everything, for less than the books and course bought one by one.
A gift to begin with
Presence Journal, free
Thirty short pieces on peace and clarity, as a PDF, and a note from me when something new is published. No noise. Leave whenever you like.