touching quiet & Stillness

Hello Friends,

At the core of spirituality is silence and stillness. I want to say right off the bat that these are facets of everyone's being, and as such, they are in you.

Contrary to what it may sound like, silence and stillness are not conceptual ideas about your being. They are actual real things in you. As real as things come in fact.

Until one has touched the REAL silence, stillness, peace, or vastness in one's being, these things will sound good, lofty, annoying, or downright triggering. There will be some thought or reaction to them, but the profound REALNESS of them will remain hidden.

Words are sounds, symbols, stand-ins for something REAL, so don't stop there and spend all of your time in the conceptual...let the words point you to the experience that they stand for.

The first time I touched silence I was on a 7-day meditation retreat with Adyashanti (there was a 3 year period when I went to either a Byron Katie retreat or a silent meditation retreat every other month. My soul was on a serious rampage). He guided us down deep into our bodies and showed us the silence and stillness there.

I was astounded. It was there, it was REAL, like, actually a thing in me, a thing I could touch, rest upon, melt into. I couldn't believe I'd never experienced it before when it was right here all along, in my very own body!

The work I do with clients is directly inspired by this initial experience with Adyashanti, and the cascade of inner work inspired by it.

Healing sessions with clients can go right to one of these aspects or facets of being. The particular one that opens up in a client depends upon which quality is the most innately developed in that person. Sometimes we go to stillness, sometimes sturdiness, sometimes peace, and there are many more.

When I feel a client directly encounter a facet of their being, I rejoice. I know that we're good to go. The longer we spend time there, steeping in the elixir of presence that heals all wounds, the better.

The stress and emotion brought to the session falls away. The longer we stay in the deep experience the suffering and confusion on the surface level tends to be understood and seen through from a perspective not available to the suffering one.

Peace, joy, bliss, devotion, silence, stillness, any of them, when they are developed and given attention, they become a ballast, a bedrock of stability that one can turn to when times get rough. In the Bible it's referred to as building you house upon the rock. These qualities are the rock because they don't change. In Buddhism you would say that they are outside of the wheel of samsara.

Being able to touch something outside of the wheel of suffering, of samsara, is the basis of all soul evolution. I want to repeat that.

Being able to touch something outside of the wheel of suffering, of samsara, is the basis of all soul evolution.

Without it we are wandering, wondering and floundering in the conceptual, the unreal, the changeable. We are caught in the caprice of the mind and ego, it desperately trying to talk and reason its way home.

I recorded a meditation into stillness and silence for you. My intention is for the meditation to provide an avenue into these facets of Being. Perhaps you have not touched them yet? Perhaps you will with this meditation.

It is an amazing experience, and one of the great joys of my work, to usher people into these places, especially if they have not gone there before. There is a unique quality the first time one of these places is experienced, something akin to joy, surprise, and an ancient recognition. Ah! This is where I have been trying to go... I found it!

The response clients have where they first touch this place is 'I want to stay here forever.' And no wonder. The soul knows home.

Here is the meditation. May it usher you into a place that has been patiently waiting for your return.

Touching Quiet & Stillness

And so, let us be so tender and kind with each other and ourselves, and when we cannot, may we be so tender and kind with that. It is as it should be. I wish you much love today,
Evangeline

PS - please forward this meditation to anyone you know that could use it.