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Hymns:
Find a Stillness, #352
Voice Still and Small, #391
“Find a stillness, hold a stillness, let the stillness carry me.”
“Tis the season to be crazed, fa la la la la la la la la.
Hurry, run through the holiday maze, fa la, etc.
Now we don our insanity, fa la, etc
No time to stop for a cup of tea, fa la, etc.”
 his
is indeed the time of year to find the stillness, find the silence. Or
else!! Each year I feel the holidays creeping up in the tension of my
shoulders and settling in the marrow of my bones. So many errands and
gifts and trips and decisions and mailings and parties and on line
orderings and wild mall trips and on and on. I see and understand……I
know it is a subversion of something fine and sacred. I know the roots
of it all originally rested in bringing simple gifts to those we loved.
Then time changed us. We had access to more and more disposable income
and POW, the holidays became a “season to be crazed.” Materialism and a
pace of life set permanently on fast forward co-opted our souls.
Then, I thought, how is the experience of the holidays really different
than the rest of the year?? How often do we surrender to the intense
pace of life year round, just let it run over us like a big tired truck
without resistance? Passively giving into this materialistic, soul
killing culture of which we are a part.
Is there a way back? A way back to our deeper, more authentic selves? A
way back to lives lived with depth and meaning? Well yes. Are we willing
to pay the price to have it? That is another question, one we each must
answer for ourselves.
I believe the way back is through stillness. Learning to be still so we
might find our way back to the very deepest part of ourselves. Body,
mind, spirit stillness. As in, “be still and know that God is..” God,
here, as a synonym for authenticity and depth. “Be still and know that I
am alive, that I am human, that I am in pain, that I am in joy”
Joseph Campbell tells us that ancient traditions of meditation and
prayer help us to find the still center of our selves. Here is an
analogy he uses:
“The mind is likened…to the surface of a pond rippled by a wind….The
idea of meditation and prayer, or other effective ways to quiet
ourselves, is to cause that wind to subside and let the waters return to
rest. For when a wind blows and waters stir, the waves break and distort
both the light and its reflections, so that all that can be seen are
colliding broken forms. Not until the waters will have been stilled,
cleansed of stirred-up sediment and made mirror-bright, will the one
reflected image appear that on the rippling waves had been broken; that
of the clouds and pure sky above, the trees along the shore, and down
deep in the still, pure water itself, the sandy bottom and the fish.
Then alone will that single image be known of which the wave-borne
reflections are but fragments and distortions. And this single image can
be likened to that of the Self realized in meditation and prayer. It is
the Ultimate—the Form of forms—of which the phenomena of this world are
but imperfectly seen, ephemeral distortions: the God-form, the
Buddha-form, which is truly our own Knowledge-form, and with which it is
the goal of meditation and prayer to unite us.”
“Finding our true selves isn’t just about dreams once yearned for or
finding God, but about seeing clearly who we really are right now. To do
that we need to let go of much of what is in the way—that very busyness
that consumes us, the cacophony of daily life, the structures of society
that keep us imprisoned in the “shalts.” We need to let go of all that
and step away in order that the winds can be stilled and the pond settle
so that we can begin to see clearly what lies in the depths of our
being.”
We talk about getting still so that the pool becomes clear all the time
in churches. Different stories, but the same theme. Today I want to talk
with you about making a decision to carry out random acts of stillness,
and planned ones as well. It is this dimension, to make a decision to
practice acts of stillness, that we can form a pathway to the heart of
our own matter, to reach our own soul. We can’t just talk about it. We
must do it, practice it. Feel it in our bones. It sounds so easy, why
don’t we do it more often. Probably because we are afraid to, afraid of
what we will find when we truly slow down, are truly still.
“It is by going down into the abyss that we recover the treasures of
life.
Where you stumble, there lies your treasure.
The very cave you are afraid to enter turns out to be the source of
What you are looking for.
The damned thing in the cave that was so dreaded has become the center.
The goal is to bring the jewel back to the world”
So, despite our fears, we must go down into the stillness if we are to
transcend those same fears. For there is the treasure. What is the
treasure you ask?
“Silence (like darkness) is the absence of images, the absence of
projections. When we enter into silence, we let go of our images-- our
creeds-- our paradigms-- our metaphors-- our systems-- our five-year
plans-- and let the cosmos speak to us. When we have pealed away all of
our language-- all of our intellectualization and rationalization-- we
come face to face with those deeper truths which are beyond all human
categories. Face to face with that ground and source of Being that many
of us would call God.” Others of us call it the higher self, that which
gives meaning to our world, the best of life and ourselves.
"Nothing in all creation is so like God as stillness," wrote Meister
Eckhart
“put away
all voices and sounds
all images and likenesses.
For no image has ever revealed the soul's foundation
where God herself [dwells]."
From Thomas Merton:
"Be still
Listen to the stones of the wall
Be silent, they try
to speak your
Name.
Listen
To the living walls.
Who are you?
Who
Are you? Whose
Silence are you?"
"I said to my soul, be still," wrote T.S. Eliot.
"...be
still, and let the dark come upon you
which shall be the darkness of God."
For as the Psalmist wrote:
"Be still,
and know that I am God."
I say, “Be still, and know that God is.”
To find this depth and meaning in life, we must achieve a quiet heart.
Or, rather, make a decision and practice that which will give us a quiet
heart.
As the Tao te Ching says: “Empty yourself of everything. Let the mind
rest at peace.”
And…”Who can wait quietly while the mud settles? Who can remain still
until the moment of action?”
GUIDED MEDITATION
I invite you
now to
Be as the water of the pond,
Allowing yourself to be stilled.
Place your feet flat on the floor,
Back straight.
Find the tensions in your muscles and let them go.
Breathe in calm,
Breathe out stress and tension.
Let go the frown on your face,
Relax your cheeks, your jaw,
Drop your shoulders.
Let the half-smile come to your lips
Bringing the peace of the Buddha.
Breathe in calm,
Breathe out stress and tension.
Feel the stillness flow over and through you.
Let the stillness carry you deeper into your being
To your center, your essence, your harmony.
Just breathe in and out with the stillness.
Find the stillness, hold the stillness, let the stillness carry you.
To find your own quiet heart. To find your own center. To find peace. To
find God. To find what is most meaningful and holy in life. It is
necessary to make a decision to carry out the act of stillness. Only you
can decide to slow the controls from fast forward, to slow, to still.
Good luck. A new world awaits you.
Find the stillness, hold the stillness, let the stillness carry you.
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