Just center yourself in silence for a moment.
Instead of waiting for something to happen, flip it just slightly and just be in it. Are you really here or are you just waiting for the next thing? It’s interesting to see where we are in relation to time; whether we’re always just between what just happened and what happens next, or whether we can just be here now.
So, let’s just find our way to be here together. If you’re feeling agitated, just notice the agitation. If you’re warm, be warm. If you’re cold, be cold. If you’re overly full, be overly full. Be it, whatever it is, but put it all in the context of a quiet space, because there’s a secret in that, and it’s worth playing with it.
That there’s a place that we can be inside of ourselves, inside of the universe, in which and from which we can appreciate the delight in life. Where we can still have equanimity, and quality of presence, and the quietness of peace.
It’s something I’ve been cultivating for 45 years now. Just imagine a mandala or a flower and think about the center of the flower and then all the petals that come out from the center and think of the center of the flower as absolutely still, and think of all of the petals as moving, and energy, and change, but the center is still.
Where is your center?
Thoughts coming, they’re petals. Thoughts arising, changing, disappearing.
“What’s happening? I don’t understand!”
“What’s he talking about? This isn’t going to help!”
“When is he going to start?”
“Where is my silent place?”
Those are all thoughts. Just notice them. They arise, they exist, they pass away, they’re supplanted by another thought a moment later. When they were there, they all seemed very real, didn’t they? You can hardly remember the thought you had two minutes ago. It just came and went, just like a summer storm. An itch on the nose, a pain in the knee, a sound outside, somebody moving, coming, going, coming, going, the stuff of life. Just coming, going, coming, going. Behind it right here is just quiet.
It’s interesting, how many words we will use that are designed to ultimately bring you right to the center of the flower, right to the quiet place, right to the place where we meet, in the deepest way. We meet through our words, through our concepts. Relationally, we meet in the silence united.
-Ram Dass
