STILLNESS IS A RETREAT TIME WITH YOURSELF

Stop! Don’t let the world move on you and crush you in its speed.

Eckhart Tolle has said that when we lose touch with our self, obviously due to too much of external activities, we lose our self in the world. This overwhelming world outside, in which a large number of us want to be participating, has actually proved to be the cause of anxiety to many. This world is like a racing car which crashes on us when we lose control of it. The result is not only physical damage, but also emotional and sometimes worse still, a mental one.

This result oriented society seems to be driving many on us crazy. It has injected us with the drive to collect everything in large numbers and at a quick pace; even when it has really no value for us and we long to go slow. It’s simply probably the ‘more syndrome’ at work here. Some of us have got onto this bullet train of accumulation of degrees, success or power and strangely to a certain extent have realized that they don’t make sense; but now, we are unable to get off this speeding train. It sure would need courage to jump off this speedy and noisy worldly cacophonous machine and sit still and silent in nature.

Such accelerated lifestyle honestly gets us nowhere. We need to not only understand but also accept that our movement not necessarily gets us somewhere. In fact, our society has confused motion with progress. As Alfred A. Montapert says, “A rocking horse keeps moving but does not make any progress.” The question we now need to ponder over is, ‘what does progress mean to us individually?' If all activity is done with the intention of reaching a satisfactory goal, then a cushioned bed should help better in the comforts of rest than a plain mat. However, a stressed mind roughing up its mental peace to gain the rich couch may have troubled sleep, but a simple tranquil mind may have heavenly slumber on a coarse rug instead. It’s the vision and perspective of happiness here that makes all the difference.

A restless mind is often tossed on the rough sea of life while gathering its materials of comforts; but a silenced mind is like an anchor that saves one from self-destruction. The Chinese philosopher, Lao-Tzu put this as, “When there is silence, one finds the anchor of the universe with oneself.”

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