Stillness Is the Key

To be steady while the world spins around you. To act without
frenzy. To hear only what needs to be heard. To possess quietude—exterior and interior—on command.

We have to get better at thinking, deliberately and intentionally, about the big questions. On the complicated things. On understanding what’s really going on with a person, or a situation, or with life itself.

The Daodejing points out that when clay is formed around emptiness, it becomes a pitcher that can hold water. Water from the pitcher is poured into a cup, which is itself formed around emptiness. The room this all happens in is itself four walls formed around emptiness.

You have plenty on your plate right now. Focus on that, no matter how small or insignificant it is. Do the very best you can right now.

Don’t reject a difficult or boring moment because it is not exactly what you want. Don’t waste a beautiful moment because you are insecure or shy. Make what you can of what you have been given. Live what can be lived. That’s what excellence is. That’s what presence makes possible.

The less energy we waste regretting the past or worrying about the future, the more energy we will have for what’s in front of us.

The real present moment is what we choose to exist in, instead of lingering on the past or fretting about the future. It’s however long we can push away the impressions of what’s happened before and what we worry or hope might occur at some other time. Right now can be a few minutes or a morning or a year—if you can stay in it that long.

We, in fact, try desperately to get out of it—by thinking, doing, talking, worrying, remembering, hoping, whatever

PART I
MIND ♦ SPIRIT ♦ BODY
The mind is restless, Krishna, impetuous, self-willed, hard to train: to master the mind seems as difficult as to master the mighty winds.

The only problem was that if their logic turned out to be wrong, no one would be around to account for their mistake. Because everyone would be dead.