Motion out of Stillness
I’ve been reflecting lately on the need for stillness. In this frantic life, it is so easy to get lost in the constant mental calculations of possibilities and outcomes. But to get to the right answer, you need to ask the right question, and as one of my most favorite writers once said:
There are no right answers to wrong questions.
She also wrote in her marvelous “Earthsea Wizard”:
To light a candle is to cast a shadow.
But back to the need for stillness.
He Who is both the Beginning and the End, He Who is both Stillness and Motion, is now manifest before your eyes. Behold how, in this Day, the Beginning is reflected in the End, how out of Stillness Motion hath been engendered. Whoso hath been quickened by its vitalizing power, will find himself impelled to attain the court of the Beloved; and whoso hath deprived himself therefrom, will sink into irretrievable despondency. He is truly wise whom the world and all that is therein have not deterred from recognizing the light of this Day, who will not allow men’s idle talk to cause him to swerve from the way of righteousness.
(Baha’u'llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha’u'llah, p. 168)
I read this quote and think that sometimes, probably most of the times, the only way to hear God speak is to still the mind and let the heart talk. And if the heart is cleansed for the descent of God, then the heart’s voice will be heard loud and clear.
O SON OF BEING!
Thy heart is My home; sanctify it for My descent. Thy spirit is My place of revelation; cleanse it for My manifestation.(Baha’u'llah, The Arabic Hidden Words)
And further, reflecting on “the Beginning is reflected in the End”: if one is not calm, centered, focused on God’s Will in the beginning, probably it will show in the end. And vice versa, if the beginning is rooted in the calm, confident reliance on God’s guidance, the end will be the way it needs to be, regardless of the specifics of the outcome, regardless of our inability to see the end in the beginning.
The beginning of all things is the knowledge of God, and the end of all things is strict observance of whatsoever hath been sent down from the empyrean of the Divine Will that pervadeth all that is in the heavens and all that is on the earth.
(Baha’u'llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha’u'llah, p. 5)
