Sitting Still as a Way of Moving Forward
One of the more difficult things to reconcile on any spiritual path is that distinction between self and other. There are times when a certain kind of rugged individualism seems to be the key to unlock the secrets of success, but there are more instances where the opposite is true. It’s not very easy to build any kind of spiritual life where there isn’t a central notion that everything is connected, and there is no such thing as an individual.
This is probably best represented by that very common but useful metaphor of sitting. Sitting still is impossible for a busy mind, but it is always possible, so it is almost always necessary to still the mind. The best way to do this is to sit still. These circles of logic make no sense on the surface, but come to work very well when they are put into practice. The notion of being still, or set , has roots in Sanskrit. It most likely comes from the word satjana , which has both connotations of stillness as well as of nobility. Here already there are things that seem to uproot a sense of success, where there are older notions of the same thing that are not based upon individual achievement, but on the collective.
The notion of the collective is not always one where the individual gets lost, absorbed into the crowd. It is much more likely, and much more useful, to consider it as a way of seeing oneself in relation to a larger whole. It is like being part of a cloth. The cloth metaphor is one that does tend to repeat across cultures and across time. There is sometimes an emphasis on one’s own line in relation to spiritual action. The line or lineage is not limited to spiritual practices in the east, or the west, or in any of the earth religions. It occurs and recurs everywhere, because one is, in essence, the living culmination of the teachings of the ones who taught before us.
The word itself, line, comes from linen , which is also the root for the flax seed. The flax is popular now for its immense nutritional value, but it is also the source of cloth. The line, then, is that very thing that connects us in many ways, and to be part of a cloth is a useful metaphor for what are very real connections in many spiritual teachings. Here one can start to catch a glimmer of that thing that makes personal motivation become a necessity, and even an inevitability, because there are forces at work to help make it into a reality, because it is a birthright.
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One Response to “Sitting Still as a Way of Moving Forward”
DannyBoyD says:
December 26, 2011 at 8:00 pm
I couldn’t agree more! This is why the first thing I did when I moved into my new apartment in Toronto was to create a meditation corner where I could do sitting and standing meditation every day.