More on Stillness....

Today, I came across something that is kind of a continuation of yesterday's post ...the "Be still and know that I am God" part.  It is from a yahoo group called The Now2 where I am (for the most part) a silent member. It is an eclectic group…named in honor of Eckhart’s book, The Power of Now. I think I’ve mentioned it in other posts here on this blog. They discuss lots of topics that address awakening…more or less from a non-Christian perspective. Not anti…just non. Christianity is not often discussed there.

Once, when I posted something about the Bible, someone replied kind of dissing the Bible as a war mongering, bigoted book, filled with evil and atrocities. I guess that sums it up IF you read it from a purely literal and carnal understanding. Keith is fond of saying the the Bible is written for the spiritual man. I agree.

Anyway, today I read a post from the group that included an excerpt from Eckhart’s Stillness Speaks. In my last post Eckhart wrote (and I copied and pasted) the following…

"Be still," meaning go to that place where the mind is no longer operating. You are just conscious without thinking. And that is the level where the eternal resides.

In today’s excerpt (copied and pasted) he says:

The equivalent of external noise is the inner noise of thinking.
The equivalent of external silence is inner stillness.

Makes sense....

Silence is helpful, but you don't need it in order to find stillness.
Even when there is noise, you can be aware of the stillness underneath the noise.

Okay…that’s good to know.  The lawn mower is chugging away outside the patio door. The neighbor’s little yappy dog is…yapping. So you can find stillness even when it is noisy? Silence is just a perk. Or is it????

Any disturbing noise can be as helpful as silence.
How? By dropping your inner resistance to the noise,
by allowing it to be as it is, this acceptance also takes you into that realm of inner peace that is stillness.
Whenever you deeply accept this moment as it is -
no matter what form it takes - you are still, you are at peace.

Okay…so the neighbor’s yappy little dog is actually doing me a favor? It is helping me achieve inner peace by giving me the opportunity to drop my resistance to the barking...barking, which I feel compelled to note, goes on all the time. To the "someone should go down there and tell them to shut their dog up" point.  It conjures up all kinds of thoughts about the neighbor.  He is rude.  He is thoughtless.  What right does he have to let his dog disturb my quiet?  Etc. etc. etc.  Haven't gotten around to dropping the inner resistance part.  Not sure that I will anytime soon.