Once you have mastered being able to enter both the "neutral" or "passively attentive position" as well as the "active position" (See Relaxing) easily and without struggle, and you have learned to move and be from center (See Harmonizing and Balancing), it is time to learn to "descend into inner stillness."

Inner stillness is a state of being where you actually enter what Zen Masters call the "no-thought" state. Martial artists enter this state at any instant of perceived danger as a necessity. Tai Chi practitioners exist in this state anytime they are "dancing in Tao," Inside this state, time is of no consequence and actually becomes an elastic dimension as well as simultaneously becoming albeit nonexistent. (We will learn about how this is possible further on in the book in the section on paradoxes.) Inside this state, one enters no-time as well as entering a space where one moves through time at the need or action's pace.

____________________

So how does one enter stillness? First, as mentioned above, you have to be able to drop into the meditative "neutral or passively attentive position" and "active position." Once you can easily attain those - and we mean within moments if not instantly - despite outside stimuli, you are ready to begin to search for your own inner stillness. We say your own because everybody's is a little different. Some are a bit more dynamic than the traditional. Others are much deeper than usually achieved. Kai, a friend of ours, enters one that drops much deeper than deep, dropping to a point that he almost echoes like a deep cave long forgotten.

Once your thoughts are still - once your mind has quit generating all the various thoughts that clamber for attention - once your body is completely at ease, and once you are beginning to learn to move and "be" or live from "center," you will begin to experience moments when, upon entering a meditative state, you begin to lose cognizance of "being there" at all. In other words, you will become "mindless." These moments will, at first, just happen and you won't notice it until you are coming out or are out of them. To identify what we are talking about, it is the same state you experience when, while driving, you suddenly become aware that you are driving again at some point in time and space far from the last time you consciously remember driving, far from the last time you remember the scenery. You who drive all know the sensation of suddenly becoming aware of driving again and are aware that, though you actually drove the miles in between, your consciousness was not attentive to that driving. Your mind was "elsewhere." (Note: we are not talking about when you cease to be cognizant of your driving because you are thinking about something else. We are talking about times when, happy and at peace with nothing on your mind, this happens.)

When you begin to experience small moments of this when in the meditative state, it is time to begin to actively "put yourself there." Be careful here. You cannot force yourself into this state. In other words, you cannot will it. Instead, whenever you find yourself leaving or "dropping out" of this state (whether you are driving or doing something else at the time, or whether you are actually doing the meditative exercise in the above chapter), pay attention to the state your mind has been in. Feel the state your mind and body held. Even when you are coming out of this state, the essence of the feeling is still there and you can almost go back there, but not quite. And the more often you experience a passive awareness of the state as you leave it, the more the "feeling" of "where" it is you will gather. Once having identified the state completely, you will be able to reproduce that state with time and practice without willing it, by simply seeking out the state.

Note the feeling and taste of the words we use here. We said "seeking out the state" and we mean just that. You cannot will or desire or force the state. You must seek it without grasping for it. And it will and does happen. Just keep going into quiet meditation and paying attention when you "awaken." In time, you will find that you can actually begin to "enter" the state "at will" without willing it.

The verbiage we are using may seem convoluted here, but there is a flavor to it that is important, and, if you are beginning to be ready for this phase, you will find that you comprehend our meaning implicitly, without effort, argument, or confusion. If you are not ready for this step, then it will make little to no sense at all.

Once you are able to "step into" this state, you are ready to seek inner stillness.

Inner stillness is the ability to "step into" the above described state, and simultaneously be perfectly cognizant within it - in other words, you are capable of entering the no-time, no-thought space, unaware but aware of your state and your surroundings simultaneously. Within the state of "inner stillness" you should be comfortable and perfectly attuned to your surroundings, not startled by any and all external stimuli that may occur, while at the same time being so harmonized in body/mind that you feel completely calm and self-confident without feeling righteous. It is a glorious state to enter and to maintain. In it, you feel as if you can be and do anything. It is fact that, were you able to hold this state, you could do and be anything. This is a zen state of total harmony with one's own being and all of Tao. In it, there is joy - complete, peaceful, blissful joy. Or at least as close to it as you can get to it at your present state of development. As you become more proficient and comfortable in this state, the easier and more often you can achieve it; likewise, the deeper into it you can choose to go or "fall."

You need to explore this state, because in that exploration you will constantly "go deeper" into it. The deeper you go, the easier it will be to enter the state. The easier it is to enter, the deeper you can go. And once you can get very deep into this state, the easier it will be for you to touch into experiencing through your "deep senses"...to touch both information, occurances and expressions exhibited in the mundane levels as well as the supramundane levels.