Magnus Fridh - Art of Stillness in a Noisy World

The Easy and the Difficult

A FEW YEARS ago, I led a meditation on a Barcelona rooftop, and afterwards I asked those attending how they had found the period of meditation. An afternoon breeze cooled us in the blazing sun and a woman explained how her whole presence had rested on how the gentle breeze had touched her hair. So let your search for stillness be a beautiful experience. See it wherever you go. How stillness conceals itself in every moment given to you in life.

Meditation is simplicity and difficulty. So always treat yourself with humility. There are always those people who know everything, who have understood everything and want to have the final word. Just let them be and focus on practise. On your own experience. Thats what you keep and what eventually makes a real difference.

In the introduction to this book, I described my daily meditation as an almost powerfully still moment. Regardless of mood or circumstance, a happiness that knows no bounds.

So it is and nothing else has taught me in the same way how to stabilise a restless and anxious mind, illuminated my path and taught me to remain relaxed about things outside my control. Meditation is the path to nothing that also fills your inner self to the brim with something. Something that gives everything meaning.

Last of all, let us sit in silence for a while, before you close the cover of this book and we part ways.

Sit with gratitude in your heart. To yourself and others.

For the life given to you.

A point of stillness. Even if the world around you remains noisy.

References

THE ART OF STILLNESS IN A NOISY WORLD

Pascal, Blaise (2006), Penses [Thoughts], kade insatser mot psykisk ohlsa p grund av jobbet [Increased efforts against poor mental health due to work], Swedish Work Environment Authority, 19/02/2019, https://www.av.se/press/okade-insatser-mot-psykisk-ohalsa-pa-grund-av-jobbet/

STILLNESS IS EVERYTHING AND NOTHING

Dagerman, Stig (1947), Nattens lekar [The Games of Night], Norstedts frlag

THE STILLNESS WE SEEK

Gansten, Martin; Broo, Mns (2005), De tidiga upanisaderna [The Early Upanishads], Bokfrlaget Nya Doxa

Bjrling, Gunnar (1957), Du jord du dag: Urval lyrik[You Earth, You Day: Selected Poems], Wahlstrm & Widstrand

THE ART OF DOING NOTHING

Seneca, (2013), Om livets korthet [On the Shortness of Life], Bokfrlaget Daidalos

MINDFULNESS IN DAILY LIFE

Sifferlin, Alexandra (2015), Washing Dishes Is a Really Great Stress Reliever, Science Says http://time.com/4056280/washing-dishes-stress-relief-mindfulness/, 30/09/2015

BREATHING SPACE

LaMotte, Sandee (2017), Hillary Clinton uses alternate-nostril breathing. Should you? https://edition.cnn.com/2017/09/14/health/hillary-clinton-alternate-nos-tril-breathing/index.html

FEELING COMFORT IN CHANGE

Merton, Thomas (2012), The Inner Experience: Notes on Contemplation, HarperCollins

Konnikova, Maria (2014), The Lost Art of the Unsent Angry Letter, The New York Times, 22/03/2014

CHANGES IN DAILY LIFE

Center for Humane Technology, App Ratings http://humanetech.com

Burkus, David (2014), The Creative

Benefits of Boredom, HarvardBusiness Review, 09/09/2014

BEING AT ONE WITH LISTENING

Chozen Bays, Jan (2011), How to Train a Wild Elephant: And Other Adventures in Mindfulness, Shambala

A TREE IN MY GARDEN

Lagerkvist, Elin (1963), Zen: en Zenbuddhistisk antologi [Zen: a Zen Buddhist Anthology], Natur och Kultur

Cowper Powys, John (1930), The Meaning of Culture, London: Jonathan Cape

Green spaces deliver lasting mental health benefits (2014), Science Daily http://www.exeter.ac.uk/news/featurednews/title_349054_en.html 07/01/2014

Popkin, Gabriel (2017), Nature videos help to calm inmates in solitary confinement,Nature, 01/09/2017

Kardan, Omid; Gozdyra, Peter; et al. (2015) Neighborhood greenspace and health in a large urban center, Scientific Reports 5 Article number 11610

THE FIXED POINT

Singh, Anita, Voice of the shipping forecast returns to lull listeners to sleep but not on the BBC, The Telegraph, 29/03/2017

Sjrapporten drfr behver vi den [The Shipping Forecast Why We Need It], Vetenskapsradion, Sveriges Radio, https://sverigesradio.se/sida/artikel.aspx?programid=406&arti-kel=6967820 8.6.2018

THE GHOST PARK

Ekstrm, Hjalmar (2007), Utblottelse: ett urval betraktelser ur Det frdolda lifvet av Hjalmar Ekstrm och andra kristna mystiker [Missing out: a selection of considerations from The Hidden Life of Hjalmar Ekstrm and other Christian mystics], Eolit Frlag

TOWARDS SILENCE

Matthiessen, Peter (1978), The Snow Leopard, Viking Press

Dahl, Roald (1977) The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More, Random House

IN SILENCE

Stafford, William (1999), The Way It Is:New and Selected Poems, Graywolf Press

THE GREATEST POSSIBLE SILENCE

Picard, Max (1988), The Worldof Silence, Gateway Editions

Bjrling, Gunnar (1995), Skrifter IV [Writings I-V], Erikssons frlag

Lubow, Arthur (2010), The Sound of Spirit, The New York Times, 15/10/ 2010.

AN INVISIBLE KEY

Dudjom Rinpoche about Meditation 1979 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbJ7u_nJb54

Bakewell, Sarah (2010), Montaigne, philosopher of life, part 4: Borrowing the cats point of view, The Guardian, 31/05/2010

SOMEWHERE ELSE

Bradt, Steve (2010), Wandering mind not a happy mind, The Harvard Gazette, https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2010/11/wandering-mind-not-a-happy-mind/, 11/11/2010

MEDITATION IN MOVEMENT

Satchidananda, Swami (2012), The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, Integral Yoga Publications

BEING KIND TO YOURSELF AND OTHERS

Weil, Simone (1961), La personne et le sacr [The Person and the Holy], Bonnier

Finding Stillness

FINDING YOUR SILENCE and stillness is the theme throughout this book. Experiencing the space in life that creates clarity and meaning instead of being controlled by stress and always being in an inescapable, hectic rush. Thats really all that it is about, and I think I can help you to find it.

Stillness can be found in many different places, under different names, and under different circumstances. For some, it can be found in the wind across the land, while for others it is experienced more clearly in the white noise of city hubbub. It can be found in the pauses of language, while also being found in the deep listening to those sounds that break the silence.

Meditation offers some particularly well-honed techniques that make it more possible to notice stillness. Its important to maintain it, so that it becomes part of your daily life.

The method can even help to quieten down your thoughts and enable healthy responses to stress. Try out the different exercises that are featured throughout the book. Let the act of reading itself be meditative but you can also put the book down for a while, once you have read the exercise instructions, and simply be still.

Meditation cannot solely be studied through books what really benefits you is direct experience. With a mind constantly moving from one thing to another, between the past and future, discouragement and enthusiasm, you need to have a lot of patience. What is certain is that practise will pay dividends. A number of research reports tell us this. It works for everyone and anyone including people like me who have innately short concentration spans. Just the other day, I received a message from a woman who had experienced the same thing: Ill never forget the first time I tried meditation. My whole body was crawling and I couldnt sit still. After 30 seconds I thought to myself no way, this isnt for me! I couldnt have been more wrong.