There is a refuge within us that God created when He made the human soul. Each of us has access to this refuge that holds the silence through which we come to know God and to be healed. Stillness is our strength. It is necessary for healing and it is the secret ground of our life. This refuge that dwells within us is not measured by, subject to, or in any way altered by the changes the outside world goes through.
So what does it mean for us to begin living within the part of us that is not subject to change? Meditation is a way in which we begin to connect ourselves to something that is both part of us and yet holds us.
There is no question that sitting quietly in order to become sensitized to other aspects of our being has great value. The problem is that we can mistake subduing the mind for that real silence our heart seeks. What’s the difference? Real silence grows within us as we learn to see through our own noisy, thought-produced demands. If the quiet we seek is just another demand, then that silence is only an opposite, and as such temporary. It will have no staying power of its own.
When you sit down to meditate, you may be frustrated that your chattering, fleeting mind is moving. But by the very fact that you can see movement take place within you, proves the existence of at least something that is not part of that movement. So it’s a question of what you identify with. When you’re angry or frustrated that you can’t control your mind’s movement, you identify with the resistance you feel to your own mind.
Real control is not through domination but through detachment. Detachment takes place naturally inside of us when we realize that what we’re struggling to do, we can’t do… nor are we intended to do it. Real quietness inwardly is the natural effect of discovering that the mind already lives in a silent world of unity and strength.
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