If you want to see the ultimate truth of things, practice stillness.
If you want to experience your sacred wholeness beneath the torrents of thoughts and emotions, practice stillness.
Stillness heals, because in stillness, we experience the truth of who we are—the vast field of Awareness in which all sense experiences arise. In stillness, we see sense perceptions, thoughts, feelings, and impulses for what they are—Just mental events arising in Awareness. Stillness promotes a healing shift in identity. We see that we are not the ever-changing contents of consciousness—our thoughts, feelings, and so on. We see that we are the Awareness of these contents of consciousness. With Awareness retrieved from Its immersion in sense experience, we experience refuge in stillness from the tyranny of compulsive thinking. Stillness gives us a reprieve.
Stillness creates a field of unified wholeness that services as a crucible to hold our brokenness and our woundedness. In stillness, we see that we are not our brokenness. We see that our experience of woundedness is generated by a wounded brain. When we see this, stillness inspires tremendous self-compassion. Stillness encases self-hatred in a crucible of love.
From stillness arises reverence. Reverence inspires us to love. As we love, we enter into a self-perpetuating resonance of loving and being loved.
Stillness allows us to tap into the sacred. The Sacred reveals Itself to us in stillness. Stillness helps us dehabituate to the miraculous. Stillness triggers reverence, wonder, awe, and peace, all of which help to heal our woundedness. Becoming one with the Sacred in stillness takes the suffering out of distress. This is why stillness detoxifies distress.
When we look and listen carefully, the mind stills. We become present to the Now. Stillness promotes clarity. The thoughts that arise out of stillness are different than the thoughts that arise from a busy mind, because the thoughts from stillness arise from a deep seeing. When you look in stillness, you see. When you listen in stillness, you hear. Seeing and hearing promote clarity and insight. Stillness is the vehicle for experiencing Truth. Stillness reveals to us the obvious that is always right before our eyes.
The other day, while meditating in deep stillness, I had the realization that everything I was experiencing was generated by my brain. It was a moment of seeing the obvious, that I existed entirely within my head and that my brain was generating a very real, 3-D, lifelike representation of Reality in my head. This representation is so real, I confuse if for actual Reality, rather than the neurological representation of Reality that it is. I saw that all that I experience is a lifelike construction—an illusion. I saw that there is a mysterious Reality out there that I am one with that I will never directly know. This inspires in me a sense of wonder at the marvelous workings of the brain. Simply amazing what the brain does. Simply amazing.
Start and end your day in stillness, attending carefully to this moment, even if just for a few minutes. Then, through mindfulness, practice being still while still moving as you go about your day. May stillness be a refuge, a source of healing, and a beacon of wisdom to guild you through your life.
