Q

Quiescence is defined as being inactive, dormant or still.

Being still isn’t easy. It is something excruciatingly painful for some. Our social conditioning compels us to be up and doing. We feel guilty if we aren’t horrendously busy every minute of the day. Our busyness is our justification for taking up space on earth and gobbling up its resources. Unless we can show that we are about to burst and get ripped into smithereens, we feel slothful and indolent.

And here I am, talking about the merits of Quiescence!

You are sold on the concept of dynamism, of constant movement. You are a do-er; you DO. You pursue studies; you chase goal; you run after your dreams. You race to the top of the ladder; you hunt for hidden treasures; you dash after opportunities and you hurtle through your professional life like a rising meteor.

Our vocabulary is filled with subtle (and overt) messages impelling, cajoling and pushing you to activity. You must always be moving. One goal after another, one dream after another… on and on…. AND ON! Ceaselessly mobile, constantly in flux, never still. Never, never still.

Yet it is in this loneliness that the deepest activities begin. It is here that you discover act without motion, labor that is profound repose, vision in obscurity, and, beyond all desire, a fulfillment whose limits extend to infinity.

~ Thomas Merton

You never give life a chance to bring you her gifts. You have been sold the idea- If It Is To Be, It Is Up To Me. That idea is sound enough normally. But it isn’t all there is. Every success you’ve ever enjoyed in your life, every blessing, all the good things you’ve ever had, haven’t all been because you were running towards them. Some of them were brought to you without any effort on your part. Some of them came to you, walking on their own feet as it were, when you weren’t even looking in their direction. And some came to you when you couldn’t even imagine that such things existed in the universe. So you see, it was not all YOUR doing, was it?

Be still. Stillness reveals the secrets of eternity.

~ Lao Tzu

If you keep rushing about hither and thither, how will some of these blessings find you? You might run right past them. You might not even hear them calling your name because you are too intent on getting from point A to point B. You are so busy making ends meet that you don’t have time to lift your head from the grindstone and see the riches lying all around you.

To act wisely when the time for action comes, to wait patiently when it is time for repose, put man in accord with the tides. Ignorance of this law results in periods of unreasoning enthusiasm on the one hand, and depression on the other.

~ Helena Petrova Blavatsky

Your running around wont get the crop ready for harvest ahead of time. You can run about and sow your seed in time, you can rush and water your fields. But there must come a time when you must sit still and wait for the universe to work its magic and get your crop ready to reap. Patience is an art; as is hope.

Quiescence gives you the time to be grateful to universe.

 

Being still does not mean don’t move. It means move in peace.

~ E’yen A. Gardner