Questions & Answers

Question 1

STILLNESS has many dimensions.

One is silence: it is the polar opposite of sound; it is soundlessness. The second dimension is no-movement: it is the polar opposite of movement. Mind is movement just as mind is sound. Sound travels and mind also. Mind is on a constant move, never standing still. You cannot conceive of a still mind. There exists no such thing, because when stillness is, mind is no more; when mind is, there is movement. So what is the movement of mind? Through it we can conceive of the second dimension of stillness – no-movement.

Outwardly we know what movement means – moving from one spot to another, from one place to another, from A to B. If you are at A and you then move to B, movement has taken place. So outside of the mind, movement means changing places in space. If there is no space, you cannot move. You need space to move in the outer world.

Inward movement is not in space but in time. If there is no time, you cannot move inside. Time is inner space: from one second you move to another second, from this day to another day, from here to somewhere else, from now to then, in time. Time is inner space. Analyze your mind and you will see that you are always moving from past to future or from future to past. Either you are moving in past memories or you are moving in desires for the future.

When you move from the past to the future or from the future to the past, only then do you use the present moment – but just as a passage. The present is nothing but the dividing line between past and future for the mind. For the mind, the present is not really existential. It is just a dividing line from where you can move to the past or to the future. Mind is never in the present because you are unable to move in the present. Understand this: you are unable to move in the present. In the present there is no time. The present is always a single moment. You are never in two moments together; only the moment is given to you. You cannot move from A to B because only A exists; there is no B.

Understand this quality of time in the present: you are always given only a single moment. Whether you are a beggar on the street or an emperor, it makes no difference. Your time wealth is the same – only one moment at a time – and you cannot move in it. There is no place to move to, and mind exists only in movement. So mind never uses the present; it cannot use it. It goes back to the past. There it has many points to move to. There is a long memory: your whole past is there.

Or else it goes to the future. Again you can imagine because future also is basically only the past projected. You have lived, you have experienced many things. You desire them again, or you desire to avoid them: that is your future. You loved someone; it was beautiful, blissful. Then you desire it again, so you project into the future your wish to repeat it. You were ill, you suffered, and you want to avoid it in the future. so you project not to be ill again. So your future is just a projected past, and you can move in the future.

But the mind is not satisfied with the future that belongs to this life. It projects heaven, it projects future lives. It is not satisfied with a small future, so beyond death also mind creates time. The past and future are vast territories; you can move easily in them. With the present you cannot move. No-movement means to be in the present. That is the second dimension of stillness. If you can be in the moment, just here and now, you will be still. You cannot be anything else. Then no other possibility exists but to be still.

Live in the now, and movement will stop because the mind will stop. Do not think of the past and do not project into the future. That which is given to you is all and all. Stick to it, remain in it, be content with it. This very moment is the only real existential time; there is nowhere else. The past is just a memory. It is just in your mind, just accumulated dust, accumulated experience. There is no past in the Existence, there is no future in the Existence. Existence is the present.

If man were not on this earth, there would be no past and no future. Flowers would flower, of course, but in the present. The sun would rise, but in the present. The earth would not know anything of the past, would not dream anything of the future. There would be no past, no future. The past is in the mind, in the memory, and because of that memory it is projected into the future. So ordinarily we divide time into three parts – past, present and future. But, really, the past and future are not a part of time at all. They are parts of the mind, not parts of time. Time has only one division, if you can call it a division: that is the present.

Time is always the present. These three divisions are not divisions of time. Past and future belong to the mind, not to time at all. To time, only the present belongs. But then it is difficult to call it the 'present' because to us, linguistically, 'present' means something between the past and the future. It refers to the past, it refers to the future. If there were no past and no future, then the word ”present” would lose all meaning.

Eckhart is reported to have said that there is no time – only the eternal now. There is an eternal now and an infinite here. When we say ”there”, it is only in reference to where we are; otherwise there is only here. If I am not here, then what point will be here and what point will be there? In reference to myself, I call the nearer place here, and that which is not near I call there. Where does the here end and where does the there begin? We cannot demarcate the line. Really, it is all one ”hereness” – an infinite here.

Because of the mind, we divide time. Then that which we have experienced becomes the past, that which we expect to experience becomes the future, and that which we are passing through becomes the present. But if there is no mind, then it is again an infinite now, an eternal now. Here, just now, is the reality. There and then are parts of mind, not parts of reality.

To conceive of stillness from the second dimension means making an effort to live moment to moment. Then you will be still; you will be silent. Then there will be no trembling inside, no wavering inside, no movement. Everything will have become a pool of deep silence.

Why does this mind move into the past and the future? Buddha has given the name tanha to trishna – desire. Buddha says that because you have experienced something, you desire it again. Because you desire, you move into the future. Do not desire, and there is no future. It is difficult because when mind experiences pleasure it wants to repeat it, and when mind feels displeasure it doesn’t want to repeat it: it wants to avoid it. Because of this it is a very natural thing that the future is created, and because of this future we go on missing the present.

You are listening to me: you can just listen; then you will not have any mind at all. It will be a mindless listening. But if you are listening and trying to understand also, then you have moved into the future. If you are thinking of what is being said to you, you have missed what is being said to you: you have moved to the future. And the present is such a subtle and delicate thing and such a minute, atomic thing that you can miss it in a single moment of the mind. Just a jerk, and you have missed it.

If you are listening, then just listen. Do not think about what is being said, do not try to find out the meaning – because you cannot do two things in the present: listening is enough. And if you are simply listening, then you are in the present, and even listening becomes a meditation.

A Listening Meditation - Alan WattsVIDEO

Mahavir has said that if you can just listen rightly you need not practise anything else. Just by being a shravak, a right listener, you will achieve everything that can be achieved – just by being a shravak, a right listener – because just listening is not just listening: it is a great phenomenon. And once you know the secret, you can apply it anywhere. Then just eating will be meditation, just walking will be meditation, just sleeping will be meditation. Then anything with which you are in the moment, without any movement into the future, will be meditation.

But we do not know any activity in which we are in the present. Either we begin to think of the past or of the future. The present is continuously missed. That means the Existence is continuously missed. And then it becomes a chain process; then it becomes a habit.

 

Tweet