The Great Stillness Behind All Experience

Everything appears in some medium, like clouds appear in the sky. Allow your thoughts to flow; become aware of the medium within which they arise. ‘What is that?’ It must be empty to make room for thoughts. This great, empty, openness is silent, still – behind the absence or presence of thinking. It’s not a state but the nature of the mind. Make no attempt to control the mind. Go directly to the stillness behind it. Forget the words ‘silence’ and ‘stillness’; don’t objectify it. It's what we are, not something we know. Notice any emotions – they arise not in a body or mind but in you, this great silence. ‘I am’ is a portal that leads from the sorrow and agitation of the mind into the silence of the heart, taking us into itself, like a beacon shining in the midst of all experience – indicating the place of peace, the refuge of the now, God’s presence.

Everything appears in some medium, like clouds appear in the sky. Allow your thoughts to flow; become aware of the medium within which they arise. ‘What is that?’ It must be empty to make room for thoughts. This great, empty, openness is silent, still – behind the absence or presence of thinking. It’s not a state but the nature of the mind. Make no attempt to control the mind. Go directly to the stillness behind it. Forget the words ‘silence’ and ‘stillness’; don’t objectify it. It's what we are, not something we know. Notice any emotions – they arise not in a body or mind but in you, this great silence. ‘I am’ is a portal that leads from the sorrow and agitation of the mind into the silence of the heart, taking us into itself, like a beacon shining in the midst of all experience – indicating the place of peace, the refuge of the now, God’s presence.