Gordon Hempton is founder and vice president of The One Square Inch of Silence Foundation, based in Joyce, Washington. This interview is edited and produced with music and other features in the On Being episode “Gordon Hempton — Silence and the Presence of Everything.” Find more at onbeing.org.

Silence is an endangered species, says Gordon Hempton. He defines real quiet as presence — not an absence of sound, but an absence of noise. The Earth, as he knows it, is a “solar-powered jukebox.” Quiet is a “think tank of the soul.” We take in the world through his ears.

Eugene Peterson served as a pastor for 29 years. He is the author of over 30 books including "Answering God: The Psalms as Tools for Prayer," "The Pastor: A Memoir," and "The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language." This interview is edited and produced with music and other features in the On Being episode "Eugene Peterson — Entering Into What Is There." Find more at onbeing.org.

"Prayers are tools not for doing or getting, but for being and becoming." These are words of the legendary biblical interpreter, teacher, and pastor Eugene Peterson. Frustrated with the unimaginative way he found his congregants treating their Bibles, he translated it himself, and that translation has sold millions of copies around the world. Eugene Peterson’s down-to-earth faith hinges on a love of metaphor and a commitment to the Bible’s poetry as what keeps it alive to the world.

Sharon Salzberg is a meditation teacher and the cofounder of the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts. She is the co-author of “Love Your Enemies.” Her other books include “Real Happiness: The Power of Meditation” and “Real Happiness at Work: Meditations for Accomplishment, Achievement, and Peace.” Robert Thurman is professor of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Studies at Columbia University. He’s also the president of the Tibet House U.S. He is the co-author of “Love Your Enemies.” His other books include “Infinite Life: Awakening to Bliss Within and Inner Revolution.” This interview is edited and produced with music and other features in the On Being episode “Sharon Salzberg and Robert Thurman — Embracing Our Enemies and Our Suffering.” Find more at onbeing.org.

Two legendary Buddhist teachers shine a light on the lofty ideal of loving your enemies and bring it down to Earth. How can that be realistic, and what do we have to do inside ourselves to make it more possible? In a conversation filled with laughter and friendship, Sharon Salzberg and Robert Thurman share much practical wisdom on how we relate to that which makes us feel embattled from without, and from within.

Alice Parker is the artistic director of the non-profit Melodious Accord and is the author of “Melodious Accord: Good Singing in Church.” She collaborated with the Robert Shaw Chorale for 20 years and has composed operas, cantatas and suites for chamber ensembles, as well as hundreds of anthems and songs. CDs of her compositions and arrangements include “My Love and I” and “Take Me to the Water.” This interview is edited and produced with music and other features in the On Being episode “Alice Parker — Singing Is the Most Companionable of Arts.” Find more at onbeing.org.

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Singing is able to touch and join human beings in ways few other arts can. Alice Parker is a wise and joyful thinker and writer on this truth, and has been a hero in the universe of choral music as a composer, conductor, and teacher for most of her 90 years. She began as a young woman, studying conducting with Robert Shaw at Juilliard, and collaborated with him on arrangements of folk songs, spirituals, and hymns that are still performed around the world today.

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Before Pope Francis, James Martin was perhaps the best-loved Jesuit in American life. He’s followed the calling of St. Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Jesuit order, to “find God in all things” — and in 21st-century forms. To delve into Fr. Martin’s way of being in the world is to discover the “spiritual exercises” St. Ignatius designed to be accessible to everyone more than six centuries ago. Also his thoughts on the “un-taming” Christmas.

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James Martin is a Jesuit priest and editor at large of America magazine. His books include “The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything,” “Between Heaven and Mirth: Why Joy, Humor and Laughter are at the Heart of the Spiritual Life,” and most recently “Jesus: A Pilgrimage.” This interview is edited and produced with music and other features in the On Being episode “James Martin — Finding God in All Things.” Find more at onbeing.org.

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