Download PDF - Stillness Speaks

No matter how obviously separate objects seem, careful investigationreveals that nothing comes into and passes out of existence without the helpof something else; that is not a transformation of something else. The body,for example, is actually an aggregate of common elements drawn fromvarious sources, a shifting sand bar across which the elemental ocean ebbsand flows, its constituents changing from moment to moment. Where does itbegin and the world end? The barriers separating the mind from the body,the emotions from the mind, the ego from the Self, the body from otherbodies and the elements are purely fictional, erected by fearful minds in afutile attempt to impose order and gain control of a changing universegoverned by an unseen, and therefore suspect, Intelligence.The average mind finds itself separate and alone confronting a vastexistence which, for all it knows, seems, at least at times, a pointless andmeaningless chaos. Science assures us that we’re seeing an orderly organicuniverse evolving according to a vast cosmic plan, religion that ourpurposeful world manifested from the mind of a just and disciplined Divinity.Are these far-fetched views or a sensible description of reality?In spite of the confusion and apparent disorder things do seem to workout over time. Unseen laws of cause and effect allow us to venture forth withreasonable expectations of finding what we seek. Scientists aim probes atempty destinations which years later intersect planets millions of miles awayat the time of launching. Water is never dry nor sugar sour. The sun goes upand comes down with frightening regularity. Because we can count oneverything to follow its nature, we can search for happiness. How strange itwould be to come here with five fully functioning knowledge-gatheringsenses only to discover that a perverse Creator had neglected to provide sensestimuli. What a frustration to be the proud possessor of an intellect in aworld bereft of ideas or a heart in a world without feelings.Most of us are so busy chasing the things we want and avoiding whatwe don’t, we haven’t time to strip ourselves down to basics to see howskillfully we’re put together, how neatly we dovetail into the universe.Rather than sitting down and asking why we are the way we are, day in andday out we mindlessly push on down life's tracks, a locomotive with a fullhead of steam right on schedule - looking neither left nor right. To us life issimply one long experience broken into many small experiences.Information comes in from the world around and we react. Stimulus.Response. Stimulus. Response. After a seemingly endless procession ofexperiences the lights go out and we die.47