The Stillness That is Always Here
“I focused only on the music but felt there was something I missed
It was the silence that needs to be there first for the notes to exist”
-Trace Bell
We are so often caught up in the content of our experience that we overlook the context the whole thing is happening within. When we hear a song and love the song what we love about it is the content of the song. We love the beat, the melody and the voices that accompany them. But what about the context of the song? The context is the silence that was there before the song played and is there as the song is playing. The silence is the backdrop of the song and without the silence there would be no space for the song to exist.
Stillness
There is so much content in our life. Thoughts, emotions, sights, sounds, objects all make up a very fascinating and colorful experience. But what about the context?
There is a stillness in the background of your experience at all times.
Take a deep breath and feel that there is a silent stillness that is right here, right now. This is not something to look for with your mind, this is something to sink into. If this feels confusing or foreign to your mind, that's because the mind can’t know this stillness. This stillness is the context that the mind is happening within and the mind can’t reach outside of itself to grasp it.
This stillness is felt not known.
The deepest truths aren’t truths we discover by thinking hard enough. The deepest truths go so far beyond the mind they require us to feel and sense them. Humans have been trying to put a name to this felt stillness for thousands of years. Some have referred to it as presence, being, emptiness, awareness or isness. It ultimately is unnameable as it escapes the ability to be captured with language but we can feel it and we can feel that it is always here. It’s a mystery in the best way possible. Always present for us to explore yet elusive enough that we can’t pin it down with the human tool of language. The context can never be fully pinned down by the content.
Never separate
Even in the midst of complete chaos and turmoil this stillness remains present. It's not a silent stillness that is negated by noise or activity. It's a silent stillness that allows the noise and activity to exist.
The context is never destroyed or diminished by the content.
No matter where you go and what you do you are never at a distance from this background of stillness. You can’t take a step away from it. You are never separate from it. It is here for you in every situation. In the darkest moment of depression or the most blissful moment of ecstasy the background of stillness remains the same. The more you start to rest in this stillness the more you realize you and this stillness are one.
Meditation
Meditation is the practice of falling back into ever present stillness. One of my favorite quotes is from Deepak Chopra when he says “meditation is not a way of making your mind quiet, it is a way of entering the quiet that is always there.” We don’t calm down the mind by “trying” to make the mind quiet. The mind naturally quiets down when we sink into the quiet that is always here. The content is changed by recognizing the context.
What an incredible gift to have this mystery always present for us to be with. The more we throw ourselves into the mystery the closer we get to peace.
Peace is found by recognizing what is always here.
Peace is found by recognizing what could never not be.
Peace is found by recognizing what can never be separated from us.
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