The construct of a "Still Point" is exquisitely described by T.S. Eliot in these lines from the 20th century poem "Burnt Norton". Written in London in 1935, the poem is itself a meditation. The remaining three poems of the Four Quartets were written during WWII and the German blitz bombing of Britain. The collection is described as an expansion of the spiritual vision of Eliot's early masterpiece, "The Waste Land". The "Waste Land" was written in 1921, following the devastation of WWI (1914-1918) and the Spanish Flu Pandemic (1918-1920). Eliot was living in London throughout the wars and the pandemic. During that Pandemic, over 50 million people died worldwide, some speculate the mortality was twice that. The death toll was 228,000 in Britain. This flu virus was hardest on healthy young adults between the ages of 20 and 30. Eliot was 29 in 1918.
These lines imply that memory and time are clues to the transcendent experience. See where they lead you...
from T.S. Eliot (20th century, Four Quartets: Burnt Norton)
At the still point of the turning world. Neither flesh nor fleshless;
Neither from nor towards; at the still point, there the dance is,
But neither arrest nor movement. And do not call it fixity,
Where past and future are gathered. Neither movement from nor towards,
Neither ascent nor decline. Except for the point, the still point,
There would be no dance, and there is only the dance.
I can only say, there we have been: but I cannot say where.
And I cannot say, how long, for that is to place it in time.
Whatever role you may fulfill in the society, in this time and place, in this pandemic, "that still point" remains regardless of upheaval. It silently awaits your recognition. (Susan Nettleton)