Be still
Posted on: December 21, 2008
Learn to be quiet
You need not do anything.
Remain sitting at your table and listen.
You need not even listen, just wait.
You need not even wait,
just learn to be quiet, still and solitary.
And the world will freely offer itself to you unmasked.
It has no choice, it will roll in ecstasy at your feet.
Joseph Campbell
We must be willing to get rid of the life we planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us.
The world is a match for us. We are a match for the world.
It is all about finding the still point in your mind where commitment drops away.
P.S. Thanks to readers picking up the following post and it appearing in my side bar, I went back to what I had written 9 months ago. This post on action and stillness has many useful links to the psychological and scientific literature.
4 Responses to "Be still"
July 20, 2009 at 5:07 pm
[…] Be still: Kafka and Joseph Campbell […]
December 29, 2009 at 3:37 am
Very unique but useful quotes indeed. I like both of them, keep em coming.
flowing motion 
December 24, 2008 at 4:34 pm
I particularly like the Joseph Cambell quote, about getting rid of the life we planned.
I wonder how much suffering I’ve caused myself due to life being different than what I thought it would be or should be.
And, as a consequence, I made it difficult to appreciate what life is as it is. Or to effectively change it into something else.