Stillness

The 17th century philosopher Blaise Pascal once said that the sole cause of human suffering is that we don't know how to sit quietly in our rooms. At first I thought that this quote was intended as a hyperbole but on further reflection, I have come to think that Pascal was bang on.

We humans seem to have a neurotic tendency to view our world from the paradigm of scarcity. We tend to focus on what we don't have, what we haven't achieved. Perhaps the millions of years of Darwinian struggle that resulted in the human domination of the planet has resulted in a super species that just doesn't know when enough is enough.

I have found it useful to practice stillness whenever I can. Being naturally expressive and hyperactive, I found this tremendously difficult at first. Recently, however, I have been practicing Buddhist Meditation and Hatha Yoga which have helped my mind to settle and be still more often. One of the greatest benefits of these meditative practices has been an increased awareness of my thoughts and for the motivations behind my actions.

Recently I had an epiphany where I realized that I already have everything that I will ever need. We are all perfect and complete and could never be anything but. This realization has caused me to shift from the paradigm of scarcity to one of abundance.

In life there is nothing to achieve that we have not already achieved.

Rather than doing more, achieving more, consuming more, we need to do less and enjoy more, love more, laugh more.

In this way, the true measure of success is the ability to quietly sit in a room (or on a beach or on a mountain) without having to busy ourselves with all that useless frenetic activity, confident in the quiet knowledge that we have everything that we could ever need and If we are missing anything, it will come soon enough as long as we don't chase it away by running after it. Of course, we won't be sitting in our rooms all the time or even most of the time. It is natural for us to be active but we need to have those moments of stillness to guide those moments of action. The proof of this is the absurd, headlong rush towards environmental and social collapse that humanity seems reluctant to disengage from. How could such an intelligent species such as our own engage in such futile and destructive pursuits?

We seem to have this strange notion that what we need is simply better technology, then we could solve the environmental and social disasters that are looming on the horizon. What bullshit! We already have a solution at our finger tips: stop trying so hard to fill a hole that's not there! We don't really need anymore gadgets or technologies or "time saving devices" What the hell are we saving all that time for!? How can you "save" time anyway? We gotta think about these things people. We all gotta slow the shit down man. It's not doing anybody any good the way it is now. The beauty is that it's so easy to do. We don't have to overthrow the government or force others to adopt our view point. all we need to do is walk away from the machines and sit down. Hey, tune in, turn on, and drop out is absolutely right on. Fuckin' A, man - the Silent Revolution is upon us - and, although it certainly won't be televised, it just might be blogged.

Peace


"Behold the birds of the air: for they sow not neither do they reap, nor gather food into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much better than they?"
- Jesus (Matt 6:26)



In the pursuit of learning, everyday something is acquired.
In the pursuit of Tao, everyday something is dropped.

Less and less is done
Until non-action is achieved.
When nothing is done, nothing is left undone.

The world is ruled by letting things take their course.
It cannot be ruled by interfering
-Tao Te Ching (v. 48)