Awake in This Life

The meditative mind is silent. It is beyond thought…[T]he meditative mind is the religious mind—the mind that is not touched by the church, the temples or by chants… Meditation is not a means to an end. It is both the means and the end.

—J. Krishnamurthi

Be still and know that I am God.

—Psalm 46

In walking just walk. In sitting just sit. Above all, don’t wobble.

—Yunmen

Awakening to the Truth beyond name and form involves little more than a continual uncovering of the stillness that is always present. It is forever both within and around all things in the Universe. Awakening to an enlightened perspective, therefore, embodies this ever-present calm. But we need to consciously and continually practice our uncovering of stillness and quietude, since neither will be realized unless we deliberately weave surrender into our intention to wake up. Practicing stillness can be a challenge for most of us on the go, especially since it takes time, commitment, and patience. Most people who I’ve met who are engaged in this great process have, at one time or another, realized that there is no shortcut to stillness except, quite simply, not to move either mentally or physically. This may sound obvious enough, but its application can get difficult, since being still and quiet goes against much of our conditioning.

Stillness can’t be apprehended, nor can it be acted upon—that would be moving toward what the mind conceives as stillness. The mental attempt to “go after” stillness is like yelling in order to find silence. Stillness can’t be found by moving toward or away from anything. Rather than attempting to grasp stillness, we need to practice creating opportunities for it to show up. Otherwise, we won’t wake up. We need to be the very stillness we wish to find. Stillness reveals itself when we physically and mentally practice the stopping of what we are doing.

This repeated stopping of the activities that come from body and mind is the practice that leads each of us to realization of the still nature of Spirit in each of our circumstances. Our practice of stopping uncovers the countless invitations to surrender to stillness even while we are in the midst of great activity. Grounding the entirety of our Being in this place of total “non-movement” is what we practice when we meditate. From this Empty field of deep silence, we can watch our experience of being a person take on a strikingly ordinary tone. We begin to live from a place of absolute simplicity, and we offer the world nothing extra—only an Awakened presence that deeply touches all things that come near its radiance.