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Stillness is a very common concept in the meditation world. Of course it is, right? How can you meditate if you’re not still? Well, I prefer to call it ‘active stillness’ if I’m using the word to describe one of my meditation sessions because meditation requires me to have an active awareness. Many people have told me they don’t like meditation because they can’t stand the idea of sitting and doing nothing, and I always reply that meditation is not about doing nothing.
You might have the wrong idea because all you see (most of the time) if you watch someone practicing meditation is a person with closed eyes who is barely moving. So, you assume they’re doing nothing. Well, meditation is inner work, so obviously one can’t see it with the naked eye. However, internally, we meditators are focusing on our breath or whatever our anchor might be, and we’re making a gigantic effort to be aware of our thoughts. Meditation isn’t about emptying your mind from thoughts, either. That’s simply not possible. I’ve mentioned here before that our minds are such busy machines that even when we’re asleep, we’re dreaming. That’s a perpetual-motion machine if ever one existed.
Stillness is defined in the dictionary as “the absence of movement and sound,” which is the reason I prefer to refer to the concept of being still while meditating as ‘active stillness.’ When you’re meditating, even if you do your best to bring physical movement to a minimum, you’re still breathing in and out, and you’re also listening to your thoughts. Once, I heard a meditation teacher say that stillness in meditation is the same as stillness in water. A Zen saying explains this concept better: “We cannot see our reflection in running water. It is only in still water that we can see.” A running mind won’t show you who you really are, but if you become still and truly pay attention to your thoughts, you’re able to meet your true self.
I love it when I understand a deep concept like this from personal experience, and I love it even more when I can share it here with all of you so maybe you can learn from my story. Here we go!
This past Valentine’s Day, I got the most original gift I have ever received: a fish aquarium. What? I know, right? Well, my boyfriend once heard me say I wanted a fish aquarium. We had a very casual conversation about it one day when I took my puppy to the vet and I was walking around the pet store’s fish department while I was waiting. See, he actually listens to me … that’s one of the many things I love about him.
When he got home with the beautiful fish aquarium, we were really excited, and we immediately put all the pieces together. But if you haven’t had the pleasure of starting a fish aquarium from zero, let me warn you that this hobby takes lots and lots of patience. To make the story short, it turns out you can’t add fish until the water has been cycled, which means you have to wait at least two weeks before adding any living creature. We learned this guideline the hard way. Yep, we got three fish that died the very next morning, and the same thing happened a week later. We were kind of frustrated. Still, we finally got the water right with the perfect conditions, and we’re now happy to see our little fish happily swimming around.
It was all beautiful until we had the idea to add living plants. I’m not saying living plants are bad, but they made the water really dirty, so we had to get rid of them. We also had to perform a deep cleaning of the aquarium since it got so dirty. To clean it, we used a special vacuum, and right afterward I had my ‘aha’ moment around stillness. The vacuum removed a lot of the dirt from the gravel, but it also moved around millions of tiny particles that make the water look cloudy. When we finished the deep cleaning, the water looked kind of dirty because all the tiny particles were moving around. The next morning, when we went to give the fish some food, the water looked amazingly clean and beautiful. Of course, stillness worked that magic. It settled everything in place, and only the beauty of clearness remained.
I finally learned from this experience that stillness in meditation (as in water) doesn’t mean you have to remove all your thoughts so you can see with clarity. You might want to clean up the heavy particles, but a lot of tiny particles will remain. Stillness means you have to make an effort to let everything settle so you can see your mind as clearly as I can see everything in my aquarium when the water is still. It’s a beautiful practice to see your own mind with clarity.
Practicing active stillness will make you aware of your true self, my friends. If you’re starting your meditation practice, try from time to time to be still. Let all the tiny thoughts settle and meet yourself from that beautiful place of clarity.
Love,
Irene
