experience as stillness

Have you ever noticed, amid storms of thinking, suddenly, a stillness? A lovely bird’s call pulled you out. A sun burst in gray skies caught your eye. A drop in noise. Spark of peace. Even if short-lived.

What happens if you pause in this fleeting stillness? What you might discover: Every experience is the shape of silence, writes Rupert Spira.

Yes, each thought, action, sound, sensation — experience has no choice but to emerge from stillness, return to it. That what is not stillness can only arise because stillness IS. Your thoughts are not different from bird call or sun burst. But habit makes it feel that way.

You could say that experience is silence seeking deeper awareness of its own stillness.

But practically, what does this mean? Is it even true?

Suppose I am at work. I feel overwhelm, anxiety. I want to close, turn away. The invitation is to open, turn toward: To sense that my knowing of all this heavily-felt thinking is possible ONLY because I am silence first.

Can I be present for this presence?

I take a deep breath. Amid the tightening. This breath, itself an experience born from silence. Silence veiling and unveiling itself, playing with its own clarity and creativity. A reclaiming.

No need to turn away any longer. Intimate with the stillness we crave.