-taken from a talk by Ron Timm, 2023-
In our school there are five ways to do the practice: lying, sitting, standing, walking, and in interaction. Which means in any situation. Consequently the practice can be integrated into your everyday life: at any point of the day you will either be sitting, walking or standing, lying down or you will be in interaction. You will need to be skillful in your practice to make it work in day-to-day business, in the middle of your daily grind. Just like a calm river flowing alongside a busy city.
The balance of comfort and focus
Whether practicing in a lying position, sitting or standing, you should make yourself comfortable which is always important. At the same time, don't put yourself in a position where you get so comfortable that you lose focus or even fall asleep. This is your research: how you can relax more but at the same time become more awake, more present. This is what you are looking for. This is the difficulty in the practice of cultivating stillness: we lose presence because nothing happens. The over-stimulated mind and the over-stimulated nerves just shut down. Nothing is going on. We start to daydream, drift off.
Unfortunately, you can't cultivate stillness if you fall asleep. Otherwise we could say: just sleep more. We need to work on becoming more present and continuously staying present. Bear in mind, you want to practice stillness, not sitting. Sitting is a requirement: you must be able to sit but this is not the core of the practice. Remember it is not about relaxation. Again, relaxation is only a requirement. You want to practice Yin - stillness. That is first, because Yin is the base of everything. Yin is the mother, nothing happens without the mother, this is why we call it the Great Yin. You practice stillness, you let the mud settle so the water becomes clear.
The outside vs inside world
There is the outer form of sitting or standing still, which is obvious, you just stay there, not moving. This already is a challenge for most people, because they have to scratch their backs or look around. Still it is the easiest part, as this is the outer world/form, at least we have an idea of it. You did learn how to make a cup of tea, to open and close the door, to tie your shoes. These are the skills you acquire in life.
However, there is also standing or sitting still in terms of the inner world and usually the inner is not taught or talked about. The only way we have been educated towards the inner world is to deny it. It is of no importance, the outer world is important. This is why it is so difficult for us to be still, because we have learned to be in constant contact and interaction with the outer world. We have been trained this way, it has become a conditioned behavior. Now, being still doesn't allow you to be in contact and interaction with the outer world- you will have noticed that in your practice.
The inner struggle
The first problem in being still is that you will try to withstand that impulse. You will think you need to resist the urge to be in interaction, and you become like a soldier. 'No, I will not go in this direction! No, don't scratch that back, no, don't look around, don't do that, be a good boy.' That's not what we try to say, because that doesn't mean more stillness, that just means you are in an internal quarrel. Instead, you should stand there and relax, that's all you have to do, simple.
You relax. You are not doing anything. When you relax, you are not withstanding anything, you are not fighting. Don't think: 'I'm not allowed to move, I shouldn't.' Just let go. So there is no urge. And as there is no urge, there is no need to withstand anything. You relax and give it time. It is alright, the outer world has been there for thousands of years, waiting for you, there is no need to interact with it immediately. There is nothing so urgent or important. Therefore, keep the stress out of the system, at least for these moments, the time of practice. If the pressure is released a little bit, you get some air to breathe, you get a little space. This is when you start to connect with the inner.
Stillness in motion
With this attitude, you start to move. Don't get lost in the outer world, don't get lost in the outer motion. Take your standing or sitting attitude, the cultivation of stillness into movement. As if you were still standing or sitting, now we move in stillness. Don't get excited. Everything we do, all the Qi Gong exercises are quite boring. At its core this is a stillness practice. When you become still, you start to feel.
This feeling might be similar to that of a boat sitting in the water. Since there is little movement, what is it carried by? We say: ‘The ship swims because it sinks’. It sinks into the water and at the same time the water holds it. This is the nature of Yin, the holding. You can sink into the Yin.
The nature of Yin
What happens when you sink into the Yin? Does it swallow you? This is the fear of the feminine and the quality of water. What does the water do? It holds you while you float. It carries you. This is a big thing and it has to be achieved. Because the water won't carry you, it won't hold you, if you don't sink into it, if you don't give into it. Most of us never reach that point. You need to let go, so that the Yin can take over and carry you.
Once I was spending time at the sea- I like it, I come from the seaside. I was on a beach that was plastered with signs: 'don't swim' and 'currents'. Still, I thought that as long as I have ground under my feet and I'm not swimming it should be ok, it was just fun to play there.
Then a local fisherman came and spoke with me. I said the place was beautiful. He probably had seen me every day at the beach. He was not scolding me but said: 'You know, there are so many people dying here every year. So that would be just one more, whatever.'
It was a very dangerous place. But he told me that whenever I'd be carried away by the water, I should not try to swim back to the beach. This is how people die, by trying to reach the land. They want to swim back, but they just can't go against the currents. They try harder and harder to get back to someplace where they can reach the ground. This way they tire out and drown. The fisherman said: ‘If you lose ground or get carried out, just go with the water. It might take several hours, but the current would eventually bring you to another beach.’
Now, can we do that? Can we do that in our practice?
We just need to resist the fear and the fighting. Just stay in the water a little longer, see where it takes you in the process. Let go.
Nothing you can do, just be there: it happens, the more you are there, the more it happens.
