LEARNING TO BE STILL

A great Sufi meditation master was once asked from whom he had learned to sit so still in meditation. The Sufi master replied, "I learned stillness by watching a cat by a mousehole; the cat was much stiller than me." The cat was so still because it instinctively knew that in stillness lay its fulfillment. We, too, can realize fulfillment in learning to take time to be still inwardly each day. As I tell my meditation students, "Don't argue with silence." All the great religious and spiritual traditions have taught some form of inner quietude. Jesus said, "Go in your closet and close the door," meaning to take time to turn within and be still. Buddha's enlightenment came as he sat meditating under the Bodhi tree in India. Mohammed spent many years in solitude and deep, inner contemplation. In the Book of Job, about 4000 B.C., we have the admonition: meditate on these thoughts to attain union with God. Let's take time each day to be still in the midst of all our doing, to attain inner peace and harmony.