Being Still

Can we imagine ourselves not wanting anything? Living in a place of desirelessness? Maybe we are afraid that it would be like being dead. Yet that is what the practice is actually leading us to.

We learn to be held by life, to let life guide us, rather than being guided by desires.

We learn to let trust guide us, to let faith guide us, to let peace of mind guide us. That is a different refuge.

Our normal refuge is thinking, ‘I’m going to control this; I’m going to want that.’ That is very natural; it is what the human realm is all about – I want, I must, I should, I have to. This is what drives the world.

We fear that if we never wanted anything, the world would stop; nothing would happen. We have this fear because we don’t know how to manifest life without wanting.

The great saints could manifest life without wanting. They could move the world, change the world forever, just by being still.

This reflection by Ajahn Sundara is from the book, Seeds Of Dhamma, (pdf) pp. 86-87.