Stillness
"From Stillness, Unstillness is Known"
Introduction
Defining Stillness
What is Stillness?
What is Stillness?
Stillness is a state of mind where one is without wandering emotions and thoughts.
These days, it can be extremely difficult to maintain Stillness because there can be so many things to do: groceries, commitments, homework, games to play, people to meet, and so forth.
Even when there's nothing to do, the mind can still be busy trying to solve problems or exploring different fantasies and possibilities inside.
When was the last time you were still?
When you were doing nothing but just sitting down on a chair and observing the world outside?
When your mind was relaxed?
When your emotions were calm?
When was the last time you felt as peaceful as if you're relaxing on a sandy beach sipping on a coconut without a care in the world?
In this article, we will talk about ways to develop Stillness so that you can feel inner peace in every moment, without having to go on any excursions to experience it!
Stillness In Depth
Why have we become like this?
In Chapter 4, Knowing Progresses With Stillness, the state of Stillness has been talked about.
Here, we will go into it in more depth.
To develop Stillness, one can first learn about the world they live in so that they can understand why Stillness can be so difficult to develop.
The world we live in
The world that we live in can be demanding. As a student, you can be expected to study for hours a day. As an employee, you can be expected to work more for less. And as an employer, you can be expected to lower your prices to match your competitors. Coupled with the rise in technology, population, and the ever-increasing number of businesses, the only way to survive in this money-driven society can seem to work work and work, and this has become the reality for most.
These days, one can spend many hours working. And to counter the stress one experiences, one can fill one's mind with distracting things to do: movie, going out, doing something entertaining, and so forth.
To do something all the time has become so central to one's life that the idea of doing nothing can seem lazy, impractical—unproductive. That is why developing Stillness can be seen as a weird thing to practice by those who have acclimated themselves to the working-all-the-time-society, so much that when one tries to pause and do nothing, one could feel a sense of unease and incompletion as if something horrible is about to happen.
When Unstillness has become the favourable and "natural" state of mind, it can thus be quite difficult to have the motivation to develop it.
To develop Stillness in one's can be quite easy. One can do things to ease the mind from mental activity, such as gardening, sitting in a park, doing spiritual practices such as taichi and yoga, strolling, and so forth.
The other way to develop Stillness is to do less of what is stressing and stimulating the mind, for instance, playing video games, stressing over problems, working too much, going out and partying until late, and so forth.
However, developing Stillness through these methods can be truly difficult as one's habit patterns of needing to do something all the time can kick in and trip one over.
That is why the practice of meditation can be so helpful. One can simply invest 30 minutes a day to practice it to develop ever more Stillness. Through the practice, one will realize just how healing and happy the state of doing nothing in one's mind can be, and this can greatly motivate one to live their life differently, to live in a state of peace and calm rather than struggle and survival.
But again, when a busy mind approaches the practice of meditation, one can feel as if one is about to take a dip into a cold ocean. The fears of doom and gloom can kick in, the fear of discomfort, and the mind can start to find reasons to avoid the step forward. But with a little bit of courage, once one takes the step, one will realize that it's actually not that bad, but quite refreshing!
To develop Stillness will require you to learn about Self-Responsibility. This is because the world you live in will never guide you towards it. Just look outside and see how many posters there are that are cheering you on towards Stillness? To meditate? To stop working so much? To take more breaks?"
So, all the motivation to develop Stillness will have to come from within you. With that said, let us look for some reasons to develop Stillness so that we can give fuel to that motivation.
Importance
Importance Of Addressing Unstillness
<It's important to develop Stillness because when the Mind is Still, then the body can heal.
Realize that the body is always in a process of healing. But the more we stress the body, the more we are working against the process. And what can stress the body the most? Mental Stress! That is why it's important to develop Stillness if you wish to aid your body and mind to heal themselves.
When the mind is Unstill, one can become ungrounded, which can make one overly reactive and sensitive to the world outside because the mind can end up thinking too much, blowing little things out of proportions. As a result, one can end up thinking so much that they become less aware of what is happening around them, slowing down their reaction times.
Do you often find yourself unable to quickly grasp what is happening around you?
An Unstill Mind can also make sleeping difficult. Have you ever had a fight with someone then go to sleep that night? How difficult was it to sleep? How wild was the mind as it wandered into the thoughts about that person you had argued with? It's only when you close your eyes that you can experience the chaos that is inside. So, better to not find the mind in that state during sleep time!
Developing Stillness also has various other benefits. One of such is that it will heighten your ability to be aware of what's going on around you and also what is going on inside you. This will help you to absorb your life experiences better and approach them with a calmer mind.
Developing Stillness daily can even also help you to discover your beliefs and habit patterns that you have become attached to that may not be working for you but against you.
Path Of Creator
Stillness In Relation To The Path Of Creator
When you develop Stillness, you will naturally develop Self-Knowing. Because the more you calm the mind, the more you will be able to see. It's like turning the sounds of the world off. When you do this, you will be able to detect even the tiniest whispers that are not supposed to be there.
Developing Stillness will also help you to understand the difference between the state of Observation and the state of Thinking. When one has lived in the thinking state of the mind for too long, one can forget what the state of observation is.
The state of observation is a very enlightening state. Because when you simply observe the world for what it is, without intellectualizing about it, you will be able to realize many truths from it. And that can really transform your mind.
For instance, if you intellectualize the reasons why you are angry at a particular person, then you will only ever be able to come up with surface solutions.
But if you observe the mind to see the cause of that fear, of why it's there, and discover the beliefs you have become attached to that is creating that fear, the realization from the observation will move you to transform your belief-system, releasing you from the seed cause of your sufferings.
That is why from Stillness comes Self-Knowing comes Self-transformation.
Developing Stillness will thus really help you to know yourself and transform your life.
Like a piece of canvas that has been blackened with a mess of colours, developing Stillness is much like the process of removing the layers of those colours so that you can see your True-Self again—a bright shimmering light of white. And then from there, you will be able to see how your mind has been painting it towards the colour of suffering black, helping you to realize what needs to be changed within for you to maintain being your Truest and Happiest Self.
So realize that with Absolute Stillness. All will be Known.
Know and Transform The Self!
Reading articles helps with understanding, but to transform the mind, one realizes the truth from experience.
For such an enlightening journey, the Self-Transformation Course has everything you will ever need!
