Don't speak!" is an often repeated admonition found in the most diverse traditions of mysticism. At its most basic level, it calls for a preparation, a becoming silent so that a voice other than one's own may be heard. But the admonition goes much beyond this practice. In mystical silence, as Rumi often calls it, there is a phase in which the mystics so leave themselves behind that it is no longer they who speak their prayer but God in them.
— Dorothee Soelle, The Silent Cry