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Word Gems
exploring self-realization, sacred personhood, and full humanity
How To Sit Quietly
In A Room Alone
Foreword
Adrian Charles Smith
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In John Milton’s, Paradise Lost, the devil would rather reign in hell than serve in heaven. What was said of the devil could also be said of the egoic mind. And what a hell the ego creates for itself; a world full of noise, clamour, distraction, conflict, stimulation – anything but sit quietly in a room, or a forest or a field.
Sometimes I think the ego would rather create conflict, stand back and watch the karmic sparks fly, than sit quietly in a room.
Lately, I have been wondering why I am drawn to desert places. This book gives the answer. Desert places are clean and uncluttered, devoid of egoic attachments.
Our farm is a world apart, far from the madding crowd. Some have visited us here to share in the silence and the solitude. Others are visibly uncomfortable. “It’s quiet here,” they say, “maybe too quiet”;
or, “there are no people around,” a cause for concern. Wayne quotes Thoreau, “the devil is legion.”
What are we afraid of, or to be more accurate, what is the ego afraid of - that we will be alone, that we will cease to exist , enter a void ? Joseph Campbell says, if we go within and sit quietly in a room - “where we had thought to be alone, we shall be with all the world.” I have this sense when walking in the forest, that I am not alone. No, the ego is not afraid of entering a void, it’s afraid we will identify instead with the source of all life itself, thus ending it’s reign in hell.
As Wayne points out, quoting Sartre; consciousness, not thinking, is the bedrock reality, taking us beyond the merely personal. If we
truly understood what could be revealed by sitting quietly in a room, we would surely go there more often. We are embarking on a great adventure but no need to buy airline tickets, pack bags or make
travel plans. Moreover, we need not even make the journey alone, for the “heroes of all ages” have gone before us, says Joseph Campbell.
And in the words of Kafka:
You need not do anything.
Remain sitting at your table and listen.
You need not even listen, just wait.
You need not even wait,
just learn to be quiet, still and solitary.
And the world will freely offer itself to you unmasked.
It has no choice, it will roll in ecstasy at your feet.
I have been wondering, why I take such delight these days in getting rid of stuff. I look forward now to special garbage day, when large items and other “stuff,” not taken on ordinary days, are removed without charge. Wayne quotes Thoreau - possessions are “more easily acquired than got rid of.” We cling to our possessions even those seldom used, because they make us feel more substantial, thus contributing to our false identity. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment, Jesus asks?
But, like Alexander the Great, every attempt to enhance ourselves proves futile. He cried when there were no more lands to conquer. Funny how we spend the first part of our lives acquiring things,
believing this makes us “more,” only to spend the rest of our lives in divestiture. Everything you own owns you. Everything you own is a responsibility and requires management and management is
something the ego delights in. Every possession holds us down. We become like Gulliver, staked to the ground by a thousand tiny ropes, unable to move. Divestiture mean a smaller empire for the ego to rule over. Now we must consider what really fills the void. Having less makes room for something much more.
We have spent many years practising Tai Chi which is actually a martial art but the emphasis is on the non-doing. The ego really loves doing, reacting, pushing back, engaging. The idea of being non-reactive is counter-intuitive. To be yielding, like water, would seem to invite defeat. On the contrary, those who practise and master the non-doing are tapping into a source of power which makes then formidable.
Wayne quotes Bruce Lee, “be water my friends.” Instead of lashing out – allow, accept, surrender. The whole universe will come to your aid.
It’s amazing! A gushing well-spring of life springs forth as we coax the ego from its place of dominance.
Adrian Charles Smith, J.D.
February, 2020
Midway
New Brunswick
Canada
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