Tom's Nature-up-close Photography and Mindfulness Blog

The elderly sage, Lo Zu, was walking with his meandering-cane along a path going through a meadow near town. Youthful twins were walking toward Lo Zu, from the opposite direction. As they approached Lo Zu — and knowing about his reputation for being wise and insightful — they asked him to stop and listen to their remarks about their recent attempts at meditating in stillness. They told Lo Zu about how they both sat, unmoving, for hours, in their recent attempts to (according to them) meditate properly.

As they talked on and on about the stillness that they tried to engage in, Lo Zu did not appear to be very impressed. Lo Zu looked at the flowers and creatures in the meadow and remarked that true stillness is not the result of “trying” and “effort.” He suggested that one of the twins should walk some distance down the path (then return), while the other twin should remain standing with him. One of the twins then walked along the path and returned after a short while. Then Lo Zu asked the twin who had remained with him, “While your brother was walking away, did the field of consciousness (that you were) ever actually move away from what it was all along?” “No, of course not,” the lad replied. Then Lo Zu asked the twin, who had been walking away, whether his field of consciousness had actually moved — from what it was all along — during his walk. “Of course not,” the lad replied. Then Lo Zu said to the twin that had been walking, “Your consciousness did not move from what (and where) it always was, and neither did your brother’s. So even though you were walking, the mind was not going anywhere other than where it was all along.” Lo Zu was implying that movement is often delusory and not factual.

Lo Zu suggested to them, “Please don’t try, with effort, to be still (through various techniques, for instance). Such techniques likely take you on a delusional journey (that is secondhand). Let true stillness occur naturally, without effort. Also, stillness can exist even while walking, even while working. True stillness is not what one makes happen through effort and striving, or through traveling through (and “as”) linear thought/thinking. Additionally, a physical body that is not physically moving is not any special kind of stillness. Rather, natural (true) stillness of mind may occur not by calculated effort but during effortless awareness.”