Calm | ||
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A bubble of stimulation
Most people exist in a bubble. They wake in their own home, get into their
car and then go to work/shops/wherever. There is seldom any time spent being
calm.
Homes, cars and public places are usually filled with noise and stimulation.
Visual images, flickering screens, twittering voices, gossip... Where is
the peace in your life? The stillness?
Outdoors
There are quiet places to be found in every city and every town. You just
have to seek them out. Lost places, where people seldom go. Leaves overgrown
the streets and wildflowers are abundant.
Nature flourishes. The air is cleaner and there are no cars and few people.
Seek out the calm
Finding quiet places requires some degree of effort. They may be subject to
time, day or season. You might need to get up very early or stay up very
late. These places can be found.
In order to find these places, you must slow down. You must want to step off
the treadmill, into the shade and find peace.
Notice things
The first indication of a calmer mind lies in your capacity to notice the
world around you. Instead of driving past in your noisy car, you walk
slowly. You see.
Insignificant-seeming things catch your attention: a butterfly, a leaf, a
flower, the sound of an insect or the call of a bird. If you experience
genuine awe and delight, then you are learning.
Only when your mind is clean
are you in a suitable state to read books and study the ancients
(Huanchu Daoren)
Chattering monkey
If you do not commit time to calming activities and rest, your mind may
never know stillness. Even in the midst of stunning beauty and peace,
tranquillity will elude you.
Invest in loss
To find calm places you need to become a little lost yourself. Not lost in
drink, drugs, illusion or stimulation. Quite the opposite. You will need
your wits about you.
You need to step off the familiar
pathways of your life and walk somewhere different.
Find the calm
There are calm places to be found in every town. A
tai chi class is a good example. Calm voices, settled emotions and an
atmosphere of friendship and
camaraderie will be immediately apparent.
This may feel most unfamiliar to you, odd even.
Don't panic. Give yourself time to adjust to something different. Just stay
with it and enjoy. A feeling of serenity and peace may settle upon you.
Immersion
Tai chi creates a situation where your
attention is absorbed with where you
are and what you are doing, so the mind becomes quieter automatically.
Unlike concentration, you allow the mind to open and become expansive. You
feel, hear and see everything around you. The chattering of your thoughts
will begin to fade.
Talking less
It is good to talk, yet talking is also a problem. If your mind is never
still and quiet, you cannot possibly feel relaxed
and at peace.
For many people talking is a compulsive habit, serving to mask the anxiety
within. Without the chatter, people feel alone and isolated.
A calmer mind?
Most people have minds that are like adverts chattering noisily: worrying,
flitting and unsettled. Qigong and tai chi slowly encourage you to become
quieter inside.
By moving slowly and calmly, you are aware of what is happening as it
happens.
Freedom from
stress
A tai chi class is a quiet place, yet somehow neither
boring nor lacking in
stimulation. There are no mobile phones, no TV
screens, no computers, no concerns, worries or deadlines.
Instead, you can relax, let go and get some much needed 'me' time.
When the incessant noise and distraction ends, you will start to feel
different. Tai chi will assist you in becoming quiet inside.
Oasis
Week in, week out, people attend tai chi classes. The instructor is always
friendly. The lessons are always stimulating. Your fellow students are always
courteous, well mannered and nice.
Your personal life may be in turmoil, your work life may be tedious or
disappointing, yet tai chi class remains a constant: comfortable, familiar,
friendly and fun.
Instead of being met by rivalry, one-upmanship and stress, you encounter
friendship and warmth.
Many people are so uncomfortable in the absence of noise that they will leave
the television on even when no one is watching.
I have passed people on lonely mountain paths carrying radios that were blasting
out rock music. They like the scenery but fear the silence.
We are overwhelmed by noise pollution which keeps us from being able to relax
and which wreaks havoc on our nervous system.
(John Lash)
Page created 22 January 1994
Last updated
16 June 2023
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