finding stillness

hi
what to do when finding stillness does not seem to work any more or the triggers that I had to invoke stillness don't invoke stillness. I don't know if its because I got used to the effects of stillness and have become stillness, but some how I don't think so.

[fire]

If your mind is still, your focus will be present in your environment. Your emotional state should then begin to center around contentment and neutrality, or possibly higher, as your vibration will naturally rise and close the gap between your local self and connection to source. This is your primary indicator to determine whether you have accomplished stillness in any moment.

What were your techniques to achieve this ?

The most basic process I personally know of is to focus on one's breathing and practice awareness of one's environment. When your mind quiets and your focus detaches from it, your perception should be able to more clearly feel and experience the true essense of your environment in the present moment. As a point of reference, try to remember that experience from being a young child, and how that state of perception once was your natural state of being.

Hi and thanks
the process I use to find stillness is basically a memory.
I remember being a child out in nature and all of a sudden becoming still. time stops and for a moment there is only yourself and whatever you are focused on. then the stillness is disturbed by a parent and am back in reality. I remembered the moment and wish it could go on forever and being slightly annoyed that life demanded attention. glimpses of sacredness, now I wonder if they are only supposed to be a glimpse, try to hang on to it and you can't.

[A human Being]

Originally Posted by leafyish

Hi and thanks
the process I use to find stillness is basically a memory.
I remember being a child out in nature and all of a sudden becoming still. time stops and for a moment there is only yourself and whatever you are focused on. then the stillness is disturbed by a parent and am back in reality. I remembered the moment and wish it could go on forever and being slightly annoyed that life demanded attention. glimpses of sacredness, now I wonder if they are only supposed to be a glimpse, try to hang on to it and you can't.

Ain't that the truth - I've frequently had those moments where I think 'I've got it!' As soon as I think that, I've lost it I like a phrase Adyashanti coined - 'exhaust the seeker.' I'm feeling pretty fatigued myself, mentally, I'm pretty much reconciled with the fact that I can never grasp the ultimate Truth with my mind.

'Stay present.' Sounds so simple in theory, doesn't it?

oh ok so it can be exhaustion and I should leave it for a while and maybe not worry about not being able to hang on to it.

[A human Being]

Originally Posted by leafyish

oh ok so it can be exhaustion and I should leave it for a while and maybe not worry about not being able to hang on to it.

I think you're always going to be doomed to failure if you attempt to hang on to it. Just try sitting in a quiet room, acknowledge any tension in your body and let it go, and savour your internal silence. That alone is enough, if you approach it with some grand goal in mind, your mind will be distracted - 'where is it? Have I got it?'

For now, the silence itself is enough.

thanks

tut to self "and how that state of perception once was your natural state of being" thanks fire I only just got that last bit. that makes sense too.

[fire]

Your intent will lead you there, I'm sure. Please note, however, that the true experience itself is not of the mind as a memory, even though it definitely may help to remember how it felt.

I remember back in primary school, I would stare outside the window when I was bored in class, just observing the scenery and dwelling on how it felt. I would always feel awkward when the teacher caught me absentminded, asking what I was thinking about, because I wasn't actually thinking about anything at all. I simply didn't know how to convey to the teacher that I was merely contemplating stillness, being expected to respond that I was thinking about something. In fact, I didn't even have a mental conception of the experience, as it simply was my natural state of being.

[A human Being]

Originally Posted by leafyish

thanks

tut to self "and how that state of perception once was your natural state of being" thanks fire I only just got that last bit. that makes sense too.

Yeah, it's a profound truth. Stillness and silence is what you really are - it's out of this that thought and feeling arise. It's unfortunate that we so readily identiy with thought and feeling, you even see it in how we use language; we'll say 'I'm unhappy,' for example, whereas the truth is that we're merely experiencing unhappiness.

[wstein]

Originally Posted by A human Being

Just try sitting in a quiet room, acknowledge any tension in your body and let it go

Sitting (quietly) in a room is necessary for beginners as there are too many natural distractions normally to even get started. This is part of sitting meditation. One of the difficulties of sitting meditation is that it doesn't last when you try to return to your normal life. This is because you unknowingly RETURN rather than simply get up and go about your day. Way too often I hear meditation leaders say at the end,"now slowly return to the room and open your eyes". Following this advice is telling yourself to stop what you have been doing. Yes, opening your eyes is a practical necessity for most of us. After doing so, simply get up. At first you won't get very far before the inner turmoil returns. But over time, the quiet state will last longer and longer. Eventually it will last longer then the time between meditation sessions. At that point explicit meditation sessions become unnecessary as you nave learned to be in the quiet state during all activities.

In addition to acknowledging any tension, also acknowledge any thoughts, inner voices, inner turmoil, uneasiness, fidgeting, (anything not stillness). AS one does this over time, these things subside. Eventually the stillness settles in and becomes ones default state. Its no longer something that happens until you disturb it, its becomes your default way of being.

Originally Posted by A human Being

and savour your internal silence.

I disagree a bit here. IMO savoring is also holding on, another form of not simply being.