Serenity of stillness

When the whole world is in turmoil, can we be still? The answer sought by millions of managers worldwide is a definite yes. How this can be possible is the interesting question. Today’s column will tell us more about our search for stillness.

 

Stillness as an experience

Stillness is your essential nature, says Eckhart Toll, the Canadian author of spirituality fame. What is stillness? The inner space or awareness in which the words on this page are being perceived and become thoughts. Without that awareness, there would be no perception, no thoughts, no world.

As he goes further: You are that awareness, disguised as a person. When you lose touch with inner stillness, you lose touch with yourself. When you lose touch with yourself, you lose yourself in the world. Your innermost sense of self, of who you are, is inseparable from stillness. This is the I Am that is deeper than name and form.

The equivalent of external noise is the inner noise of thinking. The equivalent of external silence is inner stillness. Whenever there is some silence around you — listen to it. That means just notice it. Pay attention to it. Listening to silence awakens the dimension of stillness within yourself, because it is only through stillness that you can be aware of silence.  

See that in the moment of noticing the silence around you, you are not thinking. You are aware, but not thinking. Eckhart Toll invites us to experience silence in a deeper sense. When you become aware of silence, immediately there is that state of inner still alertness. You are present. You have stepped out of thousands of years of collective human conditioning.

Richness of stillness

“If a man speaks or acts with an evil thought, pain follows him. If a man speaks or acts with a pure thought, happiness follows him, like a shadow that never leaves him.” This is what Buddha preached. In making it happen, one needs the inner stillness.

In his bestselling book, “Stillness speaks,” Eckhart Toll goes on saying, “Look at a tree, a flower, a plant. Let your awareness rest upon it. How still they are, how deeply rooted in being. Allow nature to teach you stillness. “

When you look at a tree and perceive its stillness, you become still yourself. You connect with it at a very deep level. You feel a oneness with whatever you perceive in and through stillness. Feeling the oneness of yourself with all things is true love.

Silence is helpful, but you don’t need it in order to find stillness. Even when there is noise, you can be aware of the stillness underneath the noise, of the space in which the noise arises. That is the inner space of pure awareness, consciousness itself.

You can become aware of awareness as the background to all your sense perceptions, all your thinking. Becoming aware of awareness is the arising of inner stillness. Any disturbing noise can be as helpful as silence. How? By dropping your inner resistance to the noise, by allowing it to be as it is, this acceptance also takes you into that realm of inner peace that is stillness.

Whenever you deeply accept this moment as it is — no matter what form it takes — you are still, you are at peace. Pay attention to the gap — the gap between two thoughts, the brief, silent space between words in a conversation, between the notes of a piano or flute, or the gap between the in-breath and out-breath.

When you pay attention to those gaps, awareness of “something” becomes — just awareness. The formless dimension of pure consciousness arises from within you and replaces identification with form.

True intelligence operates silently. Stillness is where creativity and solutions to problems are found. Is stillness just the absence of noise and content? No, it is intelligence itself — the underlying consciousness out of which every form is born. And how could that be separate from who you are? The form that you think you are came out of that and is being sustained by it. It is the essence of all galaxies and blades of grass; of all flowers, trees, birds, and all other forms.

Stillness is the only thing in this world that has no form. But then, it is not really a thing, and it is not of this world. When you look at a tree or a human being in stillness, who is looking? Something deeper than the person. Consciousness is looking at its creation, as Toll observes.

Do you need more knowledge? Is more information going to save the world, or faster computers, more scientific or intellectual analysis? Is it not wisdom that humanity needs most at this time? But what is wisdom and where is it to be found? Wisdom comes with the ability to be still. Just look and just listen. No more is needed. Being still, looking, and listening activates the non-conceptual intelligence within you. Let stillness direct your words and actions.



Poetry on stillness

Poets have excelled in sharing their rich experiences of stillness. I came across one such poem in www.mindbodysimile.com:

In the rough, rough sea, thy boat is life

Fear and worry tips with might

Now to see the light of thee

Simply be and feel thy serenity

Not to move but to take the breath

No fear nor regret, for life is clear

And life is your calm, your power to be

Quiet in the moment, you will see

All as good and part of the plan

To boost, elevate, enliven, all on thy command

You are in this small boat, called your life

Not to move, nor worry this day, oh what a way

For me to see, all that be, as good I see

Without the need of greed, not to move

Yes, simply to be still, easy is thy will

And there you will see, all is now

Thy serenity, for this is thy star

Thy light in me, inside you I be

For you bring love, and now I see, you are me

The light and power to be still, and give thy will

Not to panic on this day, for this is thy play

Be still and smile, walk with peace, build thy heart

This moment of now, stillness I see

Face challenge with calm, serenity in thee

Love to all as you play, with harmony and peace.

Haiku poems from Japan are other examples of capturing the richness of stillness. In essence, it is sharing of one’s experience for the betterment of humanity.

Stillness for managers

“It is not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters,” said Epictetus (55-135), a Greek Philosopher. Inner stillness is essential to look at things in a focused, unbiased manner.

People around the world are finally waking up from the dark and starting to find deeper and more meaningful ways of life. Many people realise that a true happiness is when this world that is “within” you is calm and serene. It doesn’t mean you are passive. It means you are present in the moment. It means that the little voice inside you can’t destroy you anymore; thus, you can finally live the life that you deserve to live. As Lao Tsu said, “Activity conquers cold, but stillness conquers heat.”

By whatever name it may be called, and in spite of finer points with which they may be distinguishable, stillness is a practice which has significant similarities between Eastern Orthodoxy and the Buddhist tradition, says Ekhart Toll.  There are differences too, but in spite of them, the similarities are strong enough to indicate the possibility that these two major streams of religion might have influenced each other during the course of our history. It also shows that different religions can have a lot of common territory, tapping which may end up making everyone wiser.

It reminds me what Rabindranath Tagore said in this context.

There is a point where in the mystery of existence contradictions meet; where movement is not all movement and stillness is not all stillness; where the idea and the form, the within and the without, are united; where infinite becomes finite, yet not.

No wonder why the repackaged concept of “spiritual intelligence” is spreading across the west, in truly embracing the stillness. What we have done so far is just to experience a drop from a vast ocean. It is just an introduction to a theme which is vastly experiential. Our rational intelligence will tell us what we know. Our emotional intelligence will tell us how we feel. Our spiritual intelligence will tell us who we are. It is all about being.  Let’s be human beings and not “human doings” or “human undoings”.

Way forward

Sri Lankan managers need to acknowledge the fact that they need to be still in order to be sharp and focused. Focus brings results, as global and local success stories reveal. It should not be an accident but a concentrated effort in committing time to be with oneself. The inward bound journey begins there.

May the managers richly experience the serenity of stillness, in making satisfied and committed individuals, interactive teams and institutions.





(Dr. Ajantha Dharmasiri is a learner, teacher, trainer, researcher, writer and a thinker in the areas of Human Resource Management and Organisational Behaviour.  He can be reached on [email protected].)