Spirit and Religion

Intention, Motivation and the Action of Stillness

Intention and motivation are fruitless without action.  Consider intention to be the root and practice to be the trunk and branches.  Truly inspired thought leads to the kind of truly inspired and present action that causes great change in the world.

It is not enough to think about it; that is rumination.  Thinking in the untrained mind can lead to worrying, which leads to fear, which in turn leads to suffering.  In other words, Yoda was right.  Fear is the path to the dark side.  When we act from a place of fear, our heart is not open.  We are cocooned around it like a possum trying to hibernate, spiraled in to protect the soft parts of our spirit from being broken yet again.  In our place of fear, however, we are blind.  We cannot see.  Our cocoon that protects us also acts at best as blinders, narrowing our field of vision.  At worst it blinds us completely to our reality, protecting us not only from pain and failure, but also from beauty and grace which are the universal root of all that is good and peaceful.

So, if it's fear that keeps us still and blind, then what is the key?  Ironically enough, stillness is the answer.  Not stillness born out of fear;  this is reactive.  Instead the stillness that is key is proactive.  The stillness we need is the stillness we choose.  When we choose meditation we choose it because we have realized the need for stillness; we understand that it is the only thing that will save us from our own restless minds.  Anxiety born of fear creates the stillness of suffering in the untrained mind.  When we begin to seek the stillness of stillness we crack open our cocoon, our shell of protection, we become friends with our fears and monsters.  We recognize them as the constant and reliable companions they are.

Guest post by Stephanie Renaud
Peace Generation
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Give peace a chance again.....and again.