"There I was, sitting down to meditate and getting ready to try to be still - which is the best way not to be still - and this little thought occurred to me.
“Is it still already?”
You say, okay, your job is to sit down and be quiet. You would think the very first thing that you would ask yourself is, “Is it quiet?” But no, five years later I got around to asking myself. “Is it actually quiet before I try to make it quiet?”
And I was shocked! It is. It’s totally quiet before I try to make it quiet. It’s totally silent before I try to make it silent. It’s totally peaceful before I try to make it peaceful.
And more shocking than that was that this stillness and this quiet had nothing to do with my mind being still and quiet.
Stillness was still whether the mind was still or not. Stillness was not waiting for the mind to be still. Stillness was still anyway. Quiet wasn’t waiting for the mind to be quiet. If the mind was quiet, fine. If it wasn’t, quietness was still quiet. Like the quietness that fills this room.
See, we always think that the noise is the most true thing. If noise, like the noise that I’m generating right now by speaking to you, is the most true thing, why do I have to continually generate it? Why does it die as soon as my mouth stops moving? Can you notice what is actually happening? There’s 99% silence, and 1% noise.
So, being still is really the movement of acknowledging stillness. Be still. It’s not a demand. It’s an invitation to take a look for yourself."
~Adyashanti, from the video: Adyashanti - On Stillness
Adyashanti shares with us a valuable insight he received after five years of starting his meditation practice by trying to still his mind. After asking himself the question, “Is it still already?” he discovered that "It’s totally quiet before I try to make it quiet. It’s totally silent before I try to make it silent. It’s totally peaceful before I try to make it peaceful."
This is just like trying to become present when we already are.
Consider the revelation that is presented in this example and ask yourself: Would I rather continue trying to make myself still or relax into the stillness that is already here?
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”You are beneath the Thinker.
You are the Stillness behind the mental noise. You are the Love and Joy beneath the pain”—Eckhart Tolle
Stillness cannot and need not be created. Just be receptive to the stillness that is already there, but is obscured by mental noise
—Eckhart Tolle.
This incessant mental noise prevents you from finding that realm of inner stillness that is inseparable from Being. It also creates a false mind-made self that casts a shadow of fear and suffering.
~ Eckhart Tolle
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