Meditation Practice

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VIII. Stillness

 

Modern man is unfortunately plagued by a nervous tension that makes it almost

impossible for him to be quiet. If he actually wants to learn to pray he must

first learn to be still, to quieten himself. In fact, this very quietness and

stillness frequently becomes prayer when God manifests Himself in the form of

STILLNESS.

 

Repeat the exercise of becoming aware of sensations in your body- whole body.

This time start with the top of your head and end it with the tips of your toes,

omitting no part of the body. Beware of every sensation in each part.... You may

find some parts of your body completely devoid of sensation.... Dwell on these

for a few seconds- if no sensation emerges, move on......

 

As you become more proficient in this exercise you will, hopefully, sharpen your

awareness to the extent that there will be no part of your body in which you do

not feel several sensations.... For the time being you must be content to dwell

briefly on the blanks and move on to the parts where you feel more

sensations-Move slowly from head to foot.... then once again, from head to

foot..... and so on for some fifteen minutes. As your awareness sharpens you

will pick up sensations that you hadn't noticed before.... you may also pick up

sensations that are extremely subtle, too subtle to be perceived by any but a

man of deep as a whole. Feel the whole of your body as one mass of concentration

and deep peace. Now become aware of yours body as a whole. Feel the whole of

your body as one mass of various types of sensations.... Stay with this for a

while, then return to the awareness by parts, moving from head to foot.... then,

once again, rest in the awareness of your body as a whole......

 

Notice now the deep stillness that has come over you. Notice the complete

stillness of your body.... Do Not, however, rest in the stillness to the extent

of losing awareness of your body.... If you are getting distracted, give

yourself the occupation of moving once again from head to foot, becoming aware

of sensations in each part of your body. Then, once again, notice the stillness

in your body. If you are practising this in a group, then at occasions, notice

the stillness in the whole room.

 

It is very important that you do NOT move any part of your body while doing this

Sadhana. This will be difficult at first, but each time feel the urge to move,

or scratch, or fidget, become aware of this as sharply as you can.... Don't give

in to it.... It will gradually go away and you will become still once

more........

 

It is extremely painful for most people to stay still. Even physically painful

and you become physically tense, spend all the time you need becoming aware of

the tension.... where you feel it, what it feels like.... and stay with it till

the tension disappears.

 

You may feel physical pain, rather severe pain. No matter how comfortable the

position or posture you have adopted, your body is likely to protest against the

stillness by developing aches and pains in various parts. When this happens, a

serious Sadhaka MUST RESIST the temptation to move limbs or read just posture so

as to ease the pain. Just become keenly aware of the pain.

 

Your awareness may wholly be absorbed by the acute pain. You may start sweating,

may be profusely. Your mind may think that you are going to faint with pain; at

such moment firmly decide Not to fight it, Not to run away from it, Not to

desire to alleviate it, but to become aware of it, to identify with it. Then you

may see that the pain sensation is broken into its component parts and you may

be surprised to discover that it is composed of many sensations viz., intense

burning sensation a pulling and tugging, a sharp, shooting sensation which may

merge every now and then.... and a point which may keep moving from one place to

another.... This point you may identify as pain.... As you will keep up this

exercise, you shall find that you are bearing the pain quite well-i.e., pain

without suffering.

 

Every Sadhaka has to experience some types of pains, as indicated above, until

his body becomes accustomed to remaining perfectly still. Deal with the pain

through awareness. When your body finally does become still, you will have a

rich reward in the QUIET BLISS that this stillness will bring you. The

temptation to scratch is another frequent temptation with beginners. This is

because, as their awareness of their body sensations sharpens, they become aware

of itching and pricking sensations that were there all along but were hidden to

awareness because of the psycho-physical hardening that most of us submit our

bodies to and because of the grossness of their awareness. A Sadhaka must resist

such temptations during awareness Sadhana.

 

to be continued...