Developing Stillness

Learning to be Still. This is a high achievement. Developing the ability to be Still while in Action and Inaction, Movement and Non-Movement, Emotion and Thought... This is a critical Skill.

Stillness creates clarity. Not being swept up and swept away in Thought and Emotion takes great practice.

To be honest, it is extremely difficult. As such, any effort to develop Stillness will lead to failure after failure after failure... This is the only way. Try and fail.

Sit and attempt to be Still. Then observe the movement of Mind and Emotion. Observe the energy in the body. Detach and observe. Difficult... But doable for short amounts of times.

Success is measured in seconds. And then minutes. Eventually success can be measure in hours...

Meditation can become the primal state of being with only temporary lapses into emotionality and runaway thinking. But you have to be willing to fail.

The Mind is a slippery fish. Just when you catch it it wriggles way. This is just the nature of Mind. Do not become frustrated. That is also the nature of Mind.

In Zen they say the Mind is like a Horse. Untrained it is dangerous. But trained it has many uses. But first you must learn how to control the horse and handle the reigns.

Of course - the horse resists these efforts at being controlled. That is the nature of the horse. A spirited horse is to be prized, but it must also learn to be led. That requires training. And Patience.

This is the role of Meditation... Training... Patience... Learning to lead the Mind.

This is the role of Qigong. Qigong is Meditation in Movement and in Stillness. Qigong is Stillness in Action and Inaction, Movement and Non-Movement, Emotion and Thought.

We don't become emotionless, we become emotion-full. We don't become thoughtless, we become thought-full. We don't become careless... Detaching actually allows us to care-more.

Hao la!

--Pahka Dave