Ladies and gentlemen, today we revisit the Genius of Germany. The Prince of Peace. The Commander of Calm. That would be none other than the great Eckhart Tolle.

Today’s deep dive into EckhartLand comes in the form of a quote of his. First, some background on how I came across this gem.

My Eckhart email trove

For many years Eckhart’s website, eckharttolle.com, sent out a regular teaching/quote of his. I received scores of these over the past twelve years and saved the ones that resonated the most.

Of those, six remain in my inbox. Today’s quote is the second oldest, having lived in my inbox since January 18, 2015.

I’ve saved it for over nine years because it gets to the core of where we find our true selves. Here it is:

“You are never more essentially, more deeply, yourself than when you are still.”

So beautiful.

What does it mean? It’s partly about where we don’t find ourselves, which is when we aren’t still.

Our unstill minds

What’s that place of ‘unstillness?’ It’s where most of us are most of the time. Our minds racing around, like stock cars circling the Daytona Speedway.

Worrying about our financial situation. Getting riled up that somebody didn’t say hello when they walked past us. Fretting about whether our kid is going to pass his math test.

This is what most of us do…all day long. Every day.

And it’s not us. What’s not us? Those thoughts. Those worries. It’s who we think we are, but it isn’t us.

If it’s not us, who or what is it? It’s our ego.

What it’s like to be still

What is it to be still? Many of you have experienced stillness during meditation.

We reach a point where it’s so quiet inside that all we hear is a low buzzing sound inside our head. For me, it’s the sound of my brain when nothing else is going on. No thoughts. No nothing. Just listening to the sound of silence, to steal a page from Simon & Garfunkel.

This may sound odd, but I love the word still. In fact, I use it almost every day in my meditation sessions and have done so for years.

Using ‘still’ in my meditations

How? I first spend several minutes quieting down, starting with some breathing exercises and then pivoting to a body scan. After about ten minutes of this, I usually feel calm and quiet inside.

Then I do something ultra simple. I inhale, then on the exhale I say to myself, “Still.” Over and over.

Saying the word still somehow deepens my already still state. It works like a charm for me.

Do I go five straight minutes of this with perfect concentration? No. My mind does wander off at times. And when it does, I simply bring my attention back to still.

The takeaway

That stillness is the essence of who we are, as Eckhart so eloquently states. It’s our true, conscious self, unencumbered and unshrouded by the busyness of our thinking minds.

I don’t fully understand how this is. Or how it works. But I sense it.

And as is the case in dealing with the great mysteries of the Universe, sensing without intellectually knowing is as close as we humans can get.

Be still, my friends.