The Language of Stillness
I have a fascination—a love/hate relationship with spiders. I think this makes spiders a kind of ally of mine. Here’s a picture of a beaded spider I made many years ago.
One of my teachers, Dr. Ron Hulnick, once suggested that we try to be like spiders. A spider will work hard building a web and then simply sit quietly in the center of it until something creates a disturbance. The spider knows how to sit in stillness until action becomes useful.
A meditation practice can help us learn to do the same. Just sit. Just breathe. Just be. Be the spider in the center of the web.
This is harder than it may sound—even for someone who has practiced regularly for many years—our ordinary state of awareness rebels at the prospect of being irrelevant. We may reach a state of holy stillness momentarily. Then the mind kicks in and thinks some thought.
Stillness is a state of no thought. It is the space just before the thought. When we sit and attain access to stillness, it mysteriously informs us. Our ordinary minds do not speak the language of stillness.
Many people notice as they practice meditation, that subtle shifts pop up in their ordinary lives. They may feel more patient or calm, no matter what is going on around them. They may feel more loving or accepting of themselves. They may feel less overwhelmed or more content. These shifts are evidence of the stillness working its magic.
The stillness speaks to our cells, and our organs, and our energy pathways. Its mysterious language reaches into our emotional bodies and nervous systems, speaking calmly and always with love. It never pushes its way in; it will only speak if invited. We invite it by getting quiet.
Over time, we may find that we begin to think, and speak, and relate to others more like the stillness thinks, speaks, and relates. We begin to feel the equality of all people. We find ourselves seeking peace and seeing only the best in others. We might notice that we give the benefit of the doubt in cases where we once might have felt offended. We discover that we judge less and listen more. We assume love and collaboration. We live in a state of reverence and joy.
By all this, we create a new world, one non-thought at a time.
All of our desires for a more peaceful and inclusive world start here when we adopt the language of stillness in our inner dialog. Do you speak the language of stillness to yourself?