(Suffer no company: mystical writings on silence)  Silence, meaning somewhat more than the interruption of sound or the flip-side of spoken language, possesses, paradoxically, a communicative power and a strange ability to facilitate entry into the world of the spirit, of thought and of the arts. It is, much like speaking, a form of knowledge, and the key that opens the door to the complexity of consciousness. In silence one can analyse human conduct from a different standpoint, take a critical approach to culture and offer a subtle, unorthodox explanation of any metaphysical construct. With an extensive introductory section setting out the origins and evolution of the spiritual and philosophical traditions of the East and West, this book offers a hand-picked selection of pieces on silence, the work of the great masters of Spanish mysticism of the 16th and 17th centuries, who represented the zenith of European spiritual literature.