
For much of our life, we’ve been immersed in movement, in activity. But after we learn to meditate, we begin to experience stillness.
Then things seem to have two states, moving and still, relative and absolute.
Stillness is hard to pin down for the mind as it’s attuned to movement. But periodically, we’ll have a distinct recognition of it. Often, in contrast to activity.
Deep enough and we can be with the silence without disturbing it for a time. Just being. Presence becomes more ongoing.
With awakening or Self Realization, we shift from being immersed in movement to resting in stillness. We are the still observer, watching the world go by.
(The distinctiveness of this varies widely. For some, the clarity is lower. At the other end of the spectrum, where refinement is greater, we feel less separation or contrast.)
As refinement develops, we see how attention flows, causing movement and expression.
With the Unity shift, movement and stillness, observed and observer, merge into one wholeness. The aliveness may seem to absorb the stillness.
Emotions
Emotions are similar in behaviour. When energy flows in the prana body, we may recognize this as an emotion. Natural emotions flow like water (second chakra element).
We label different flavours of energy as this or that emotion. They’re a natural response to life circumstances.
However, when experiences arise we rate as undesirable, resistance can arise. Rather than allowing the free flow of the emotion to its completion, we put up resistance. This causes friction that we may experience as restlessness or anxiety.
When the free flow is blocked, the energy can become still, like a pool of water. It rests in a potential state. But this isn’t clear water. It carries a charge and seeks movement. These qualities sit like a filter over our experiences until they flow and complete.
Yet because it is still, it can be hidden to our experience. There’s nothing to make it noticeable, except the shadows it casts. These shadows include reactivity, suppression, lack of enjoyment, restlessness, or anxiety. (Many peoples experience.)
The trick when we notice this is to pause and look behind or beyond what we’ve noticed. What is driving that flavour? Our attention can stir the still pool and make it conscious. Then it can move, get experienced, and complete. Another shadow gone.
Be patient with yourself. Sometimes, it’s very contracted, like a hot ice cube. We just have to sit with it here and there until it melts enough and begins to move. Then the emotional charge reveals itself. It is experienced and completes, often in a brief wave washing over us.
The collective has oceans of unresolved experience, much of it carried by those embodied. Often, it began long before this incarnation. We live in this collective. Sometimes, it can be like a smelly blanket covering everything.
As we heal deeper and deeper, these swamps are drained. Clarity and stillness grow, leading to a higher and higher quality of life for all.
Davidya
Thanks David!
🙂
This writing was particularly meaningful to me. Thank you David.
Thanks, Clarice
Much love and gratitude David. Every word fully resonates. I felt this post was written for me given my timeline, I bow in gratitude … beautiful loving Soul, thank you for what you are and give!
🙂 Just following what arises, Beth. Doing the dharma. Thanks.