Stillness,

 

Today, as I was driving to my work, I noticed a sense of stillness, I had not felt before. I drove the familiar route and I turned the corner. I had to stop for the red light. I got on the freeway and then, I arrived at my job. My beautiful experience continued and now that I have returned home from work, I realize, it remained with me, the whole day. I have the feeling it will never go away again. Everything is in place.

 

We will come to our stillness in one way and in one way only, namely, with our Embodied Language (EL). Stillness is the absence of language and yet only our EL will make us realize, silence only happens, if we are not speaking, listening, writing or reading. These four behaviors make language possible and without these four behaviors language doesn’t exist. Thus, our stillness happens, if we stop talking, listening, writing or reading. During Disembodied Language (DL) – which is our usual way of dealing with our language – we can never be still, as we keep being involved with speaking, listening, writing or reading. We talk about what is, presumably, on our mind or about what we, supposedly, are thinking, but the reality is, that we only talk, listen, write or read.

 

There is no such a thing as a mind, let alone, a quiet mind, as there is only talking, listening, writing and reading. Since this so-called mind or thought is only believed to be there, due to the particular way in which we speak, listen, write or read, there is no such a process as transcending our mind. However, it is, of course, possible to engage in another way of speaking, listening, writing and reading. In other words, we can definitely engage in EL instead of DL.

 

You cannot create or practice stillness, which only happens if you have been able to use your language correctly. Stated differently, your unrest, turmoil and noise, are created by our wrong, but common, use of our language. In DL, there is no serenity, tranquility or restfulness, because you assume, that speaking with and listening to others, is more important than speaking with and listening to yourself. During EL, we speak with and listen to ourselves, in the same manner, as we speak with and listen to each other. However, during DL, we speak with and listen to ourselves very differently from how we speak with and listen to each other. 

 

There is no doubt about it: EL is the correct way of using our language, as it always results in stillness. Moreover, during EL, you speak from your stillness and when you are done speaking, your stillness is deepened and enriched. Unlike DL, the more you say, in EL, the more blissful you will be. So, although you cannot produce silence – which, by the way, is an illusion perpetuated by your DL – you can and  should stop your automatic, energy-draining DL.

 

Stillness cannot be cultivated and religious morons who continue to claim to do so, always make others walk on egg-shells. Moreover, their nasty, dumb, judgmental, demanding, superficial, manipulative, holier-than-thou behavior, is against language, as any attention to their language, would prove how phony, coercive and passive-aggressive they are. I have, because I grew up in a Catholic family, always hated the so-called silence of those, who others believed to be spiritual. I am reminded of the last words of a priest of the church, where we used to go. As a teen-ager, I secretively smoked some pot and was allowed to play my stoned melodies in the empty church. The old priest occasionally sat in the back and listened to my music. On his deathbed, he was in the hospital, on a breathing-machine and the pipes made an eerie, wheezing sound. He said in an almost inaudible fashion: now I too play the flute.

 

Stillness has no intentionality, in fact, it is the total absence of having any purpose. When people talk about this so-called quality of their so-called mental states (e.g. thoughts, beliefs, desires, hopes), they always speak about it – yes, they always say it, because their so-called thoughts, beliefs, desires or hopes, simply don’t exist without saying them – and what is said to go on in their head, is supposedly deliberately directed toward some object or state of affairs. They express this total hogwash, because they inevitably experience the predictable negative outcomes of their unconscious involvement in DL, which they don’t know how to stop. Stopping DL has nothing to do with imaginary thoughts, beliefs, desires or hopes, which were created by your DL.  

 

There can be and there will be only stillness, once you courageously cut through all the bullshit and stop your own DL, so that you can finally begin to have some EL. DL and EL are mutually exclusive and your EL will show you, that this is an absolute fact. When EL is going on, DL has been stopped, but once DL takes over again – which, because of your history of conditioning, is to be expected – there can be no EL. Similarly, EL always goes hand in hand with your stillness, sensitivity and gracefulness, but shit hits the fan, everything that can go wrong will go wrong and your worst fears will come through, in your DL.

 

We have all heard about, talked about or read about or written about, the myth of the so-called stillness, that can be felt, while the chaos swirls around us. Yet, there is, of course, no stillness in the center of the tornado, in the eye of the storm, as this is – like our thoughts or our so-called mind – merely a figure of speech. However, it derives from DL, not EL. It is definitely not peaceful inside a tornado. As a matter of fact, it is a beautiful metaphor for what happens, when we deal with language incorrectly. This vortex is a very dangerous, swirling, sucking column of air that rotates around a central axis, which lifts heavy objects and debris off the ground and hurls them through the air with incredible speed and force.

 

Another ridiculous story, we keep telling ourselves because of our conditioning with DL, is that stillness would do something to us. Stillness is said to give us time and space and we believe it replenishes us. Of course, we are not still, we are never still and that is why, we say, we should be still, more often, so we can sooth our nervous system, have an anti-stress experience, a space to self-reflect or to imagine that we can even hear our own thoughts. None of these meditation methods – to create stillness – work, as the real issue, our almost permanent involvement in DL, remains unaddressed. The real stillness of EL, is simply too much for most people, that is why the thousands of individuals, who, by now – by reading my blog or by having, somewhere in the past, talked with me – have taken note of it, have left it again.

 

Your stillness has to do with how you deal with your language and the absence of stillness shows, your language is against it. However, EL is not against stillness, but DL is against stillness. Therefore, stillness has nothing to do with the presence or absence of stimuli that affect you. The so-called external environment, which affects your internal environment, is a familiar verbal construct, which prevents you from paying attention to how you talk and use your language in the wrong way. Stillness is about using your language in the correct way. It may sound unbelievable and you must verify, if it is true, but there is only bliss during EL. It is so self-evident,  in EL, you speak with the sound of your wellbeing. This is how this writing about EL and my Language Enlightenment (LE) comes about. Stillness is natural.