When we meditate it is good to remain as still as we possibly can and here’s why.
Our physical stillness in meditation is a metaphor for not moving inwardly.
In deep meditation we discover an inner stillness that is not an act of being still as much as it is a discovery of an aspect of ourselves that is always already still.
In deep meditation, we find a place in ourselves that has never moved, is not moving now, and will never move.
We are so identified with the objects in consciousness that do move, that we make the mistake of thinking that we move.
Those objects are not us. By remaining very still in practice we find a place where we are unmoving and always have been unmoving.
If we are thinking of stillness as something that we are doing then inevitably when we find ourselves getting blown around by our experience of thought and feeling we assume it’s because we’re not strong enough.
We conclude that we haven’t built up the right muscles to hold ourselves steady when the inevitable storms of mind arise.
Imagine yourself on a rowboat, rowing across a choppy ocean, trying to keep yourself moving steadily in a straight line. The waves keep moving you this way and that way.
You think, if only I was stronger then I could use these hours to keep myself stable.
But, of course, in a boat that small, with those little oars, no matter how strong your arms got you wouldn’t be able to maintain the steadiness that you want.
Now imagine a huge ocean liner on the same choppy sea. The waves that were so big in a rowboat are now just little licks on the side of a gigantic hull.
The ocean liner is able to move completely straight effortlessly because it is to big and heavy to be unaffected by the choppiness that had been so challenging in the rowboat.
The way we can find equanimity in our being is not by strengthening our inner muscles so that we can hold ourselves steady.
Equanimity comes naturally when we increase the weight of our being. When we become spiritually heavy enough we will find that we are unmoved by the surface fluctuations of our mind.
The way we increase our spiritual weight is by spending time in awakened awareness.
When you find the true place of innocence and equanimity in yourself and you spend time resting there, your spiritual being gains substance.
You become more spiritually dense. That accumulation of spiritual weight means that we are more naturally aware of the true enormity of our being and it is what allows us to maintain steady through any storm.
As you sit, allow yourself to find the place in you that has always been the center of your being.
The place that has experienced all your experiences.
The place that never moves.
Find your center and then notice that everything moves around it.
It is still.
Find that center and rest there in steadiness, stillness, in equanimity.
