Article by Ken Dyers

Is stillness a physical state to achieve, or a natural spiritual state to return to?

Let’s say you sit your body down, minimise thought and be as motionless as possible: Is that stillness? No, it is not.

Attempting physical stillness is often confused with spiritual stillness.

Physics tells us that everything physical consists of energy, and that all energy is in motion. So whether the body is running, sitting or sleeping, on a cellular level it is never still. Therefore complete physical stillness cannot be achieved.

Spiritually however, you are completely separate to the physical universe. You have no energy, no mass and no wavelength. As such, you are always still. You simply need to become conscious of your natural spiritual state to experience stillness. Only spiritual stillness is achievable.

If spiritual stillness is our natural state, what causes us to lose sight of it?

The body and the mind are physical. Both consist of energy, form and significance. To the degree you consider you are the body or mind, a thought or an emotion, then by identification you are that energy. When you begin to live and communicate from that viewpoint, you have moved away from your natural state of spiritual stillness. However in truth, it doesn’t actually mean you are any of these. Spiritually you cannot be anything physical, even if you try to convince yourself that you are.

The problem for many people is that they have come to believe they are physical.

How can you regain an awareness of your natural spiritual stillness?

By detaching spiritually from physical energy, through effective meditation.

As already stated, spiritually you are still; you always have been and always will be. A compulsive need to experience the energy of the physical, whether it’s emotion (energy in motion) or thought, is the cause of the confusion. Once you detach from this physical energy, you will find yourself again in your natural spiritual state of stillness.

Remember you are spiritual not physical.

How can we detach from thought?

The physical mind constantly thinks, like a computer that never shuts down. To achieve no thought, and therefore stillness, you must detach from the mind. Detaching from the physical is the opposite of attaching, and allows you to view the physical more clearly. The act of detaching involves putting space between yourself, and the physical. Anything that you are ‘being’, you cannot see. As an example, if you want make a call on a telephone, but you are a telephone, you’re not going to get far, because a telephone can’t ring itself. You have to be an observer with the intention of using the telephone, to place a call.

In your natural spiritual state there is no thought, but there is understanding and an ability to postulate a state of existence. You know by experiencing. Because there is no thought, there is no energy. Where there is no energy, there is stillness. From this point of stillness you have an expanded perception of the physical. You can view the width and breadth, the light, and shade of life and understand it without significance or judgement.

The mind will go on thinking, but you are outside the mind; aware of being aware. At that point, the mind will be a resource you can use, rather than one you are being.

What is the benefit in doing this?

When you stop compulsively experiencing energy, you detach from the physical. You can then see the game of life through time, outside the significances of the mind. From this spiritual state, there is no significance at all – you perceive only what is actually there. You can observe the physical, whilst not taking any particular viewpoint on what you are seeing. You are open to seeing the whole picture. You are aware of everything but not identifying with anything. You are an observer of physical life. You are outside the game.

You are not just aware of what is happening at that moment: You understand how a situation has arisen and what will happen next as a result. This is because spiritually, you are also detached from ‘time’. You see, time is also physical – it is what we use to measure physical change. So ‘outside the physical’ really does mean outside of the physical. That’s a spiritual view.

Once you take a physical viewpoint, you cease being aware of your spiritual stillness, because viewpoints consist of energy. To adopt a viewpoint, you use energy to locate a point from which to view. And immediately, this physical state prevents you seeing the whole picture. Reaching and withdrawing to different or multiple viewpoints unavoidably limits your view.

Spiritual stillness offers you a wider perspective on life. It allows you the freedom to make life’s decisions with more information at hand. Friendships, relationships, careers, and general happiness all benefit from this, and a natural human joy for life is rekindled.



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