Listening to Sacred Stillness: Peeling Away the Noise and Confusion

Peeling Away the Noise and Confusion

It can be a challenge for us to find a way to listen to sacred stillness in our everyday lives. We feel stillness is wrapped in a thick skin of noise and confusion which keeps us out.

How do we get through the bitter challenge of the rind to the sweet stillness inside?

Many of us feel we need to cut or bite or tear our way through the skin to get to the stillness.

Like peeling an orange, we need to find a way in before we get to taste the sacred stillness.

The method I prefer for peeling oranges is to break the rind with my teeth and pull.

Some people are particular about getting every part of the peel off the orange. It is important not to break the sections of the orange when you bite the peel. Breaking into the juicy part of the orange can create a real mess.

It can be the same with stillness.

For some of us, removing every bit of whatever is not stillness is essential. We cannot enjoy sacred stillness unless it is clean and pure.

Other people need only a small break to access stillness. Peeling away the noise and confusion is part of the process for them. When they find the tiniest opportunity allows them to appreciate listening to sacred stillness.

Some of us live lives surrounded by oranges with thick skins which are difficult to peel. It can be a challenge just to create a break so we can get into the fruit.

Other people do not even have time to peel an orange. They can only squeeze out the juice and drink it.

We may prefer our sacred stillness to be more concentrated and easier to access.

How Are We Peeling Away the Noise and Confusion?

The outer peel is not an insurmountable obstacle.

Whether or not we want the entire rind cleared away, there are many ways to access the stillness inside.

Some people work away at eradicating the noise and confusion, discarding it as they work. Other people slice the orange and rind together, then eat from the inside out.

There are even people who use the rind, or zest, for its own flavor.

Each of us has our own method of peeling away the noise and confusion. What works for us on some days may not work as well on others. The key is to get past the distractions and spend our time listening to sacred stillness.

One of the ways stillness is different from oranges is how the peel develops. Oranges grow their own peels for protection. The barrier we must penetrate to enter stillness is often one we create ourselves.

It is fairly clear where an orange peel begins and what we must do to traverse it. The protective wrapping on stillness can be more difficult to understand.

When peeling away the noise and confusion which separates us from stillness, we may get lost. It seems the distractions have a habit of growing back as soon as we remove them.

What are the best ways to get through all the things which invade our stillness and claim our attention?

Some of us struggle as hard as we can with the peel around stillness. Other people give up and move on when faced with the challenge.

I do not believe either of those strategies is the most effective approach to peeling away the noise and confusion.

Gently Peeling Away the Noise and Confusion

Neither orange peels nor the rind over sacred stillness is our adversary. There is no need to choose either fight or flight as our approach to them.

The key to peeling away the noise and confusion is not to pay too much attention to it. The less we perceive it as an obstacle, the less frustrated we become, the easier it will be.

We make the barrier stronger when we hold ourselves to expectations of perfection. The challenge of listening to sacred stillness becomes even more difficult.

It is not our goal never to be discouraged, never to be distracted. We are gently opening to the possibilities of stillness in our lives. We are not required to arrive at our destination, but to continue our journey.

The times I am most flustered are when I allow my own mind to distract me. My mind remembers the things I need to do, the things I wanted to have done already. Often at the least convenient time I am reminded of plans I had made.

The beauty of listening to sacred stillness is not giving up and not fighting back. Taking a deep breath we acknowledge what we still have to do, after we have spent some time listening.

Listening to sacred stillness teaches us how to become more gentle with ourselves and each other.

Peeling Away the Noise and Confusion Continues

Fortunately for us, finding perfect stillness is not our goal.

It is not our intention to peel away every bit of noise and confusion. We do not expect ourselves to set aside everything which distracts in any way, to any extent.

We take some time each day, even a few minutes, to listen to sacred stillness. It is not as if we need to be perfect listeners seeking exactly the right tone of stillness.

There is no standard we must meet, no rules we are required to follow. As long as we take time each day to listen, we are gently peeling away the noise and confusion.

We will never find the perfect stillness, growing into the sacred nature of life.

Each day as the distractions, noise, and confusion swirl around us, we listen.

Our journey takes us from focusing on the turmoil which distracts us to listening to sacred stillness. Each day is another step on our journey into stillness.

How are we peeling away the noise and confusion today?

Where are we growing into listening to sacred stillness this week?

[Image by KJGarbutt]

Greg Richardson is a spiritual life mentor and leadership coach in Southern California. He is a recovering attorney and university professor, and a lay Oblate with New Camaldoli Hermitage near Big Sur, California. Greg’s website is StrategicMonk.com, and his email address is StrategicMonk@gmail.com.