LAW OF THREE (62) The Still Point

LAW OF THREE (62)

THE STILL POINT (1)

"One who sees inaction in action and action in inaction, is intelligent among men, and he is in the transcendental position, although engaged in all sorts of activities." Bhagavad Gita (400 bc9

 

"At the still point of the turning world. Neither flesh nor fleshless;

Neither from nor towards; at the still point, there the dance is,

But neither arrest nor movement. And do not call it fixity,

Where past and future are gathered. Neither movement from nor towards,

Neither ascend nor decline. Except for the point, the sill point,

There would be no dance, and there is only the dance." T.S. Elliot

The still point brings time and space in a relationship with eternity, the third dimension of our experience.  In the Gita "the transcendental position'' is free from tensions between absolutes. Neither action nor inaction, at the point where the dance flows.

The still point is where all working surfaces meet (active-passive-neutral). It is where we reside. It is our home. When T. Keating later in life was asked if he was longing for home he answered: 'I wold like to think that I am already at home.'

The Centering Prayer method taught by T. Keating aids the practitioner to return to the absolute centre from which we have never departed, by letting go to all attachments to the transient and repetitive thoughts. 

LAW OF THREE (61) The Purpose of Thinking (2)

LAW OF THREE (61)

THE PURPOSE OF THINKING (2)

"If you are going to think, at least THINK. Use your own mind, heart, and grounded presence to see what is actually going on and try to understand with what is the most awake in you, not the most asleep" Cynthia Bourgeault

The question is: can we think?

"The most thought-provoking thing in our thought-provoking time is that we are still not thinking"

Martin Heidegger, What is called thinking.

Implicit in the above quotations is that the power to THINK for ourselves needs to be developed. In blog 59, I wrote: "From an intellectual perspective, thinking needs to evolve into understanding in order to become an instrument of the will." In its undeveloped state, thinking is the mechanism that maintains the dream of a separate existence

When the attention is free from its attachment to thought we are able to observe objectively the stream of thought.  In detached observing spontaneous understanding may arise. This arising of understanding requires our conscious presence (reconciling force).  'It requires the presence of what is most awake in us'.

In true thinking our attention needs to play a discerning role in the articulation of thought. We need to actively be able to think our thoughts, instead of our thoughts thinking us. We need to ask ourselves: Am I in control of my thinking?

Perhaps Rene Descartes was right after all in his famous 'cogito, ergo sum (I think, therefore I am) if he meant: 'I can think, only when I am'.