Still night quiet mind
is a great way to get a good night’s peace and deep sleep by having a still night quiet mind. But the still night comes with a daring risk to walk away from habit.
I missed my yoga classes for the day. It was late, but I still could get to the studio to do some yoga. Who walks into town at 8:30pm to do yoga? Someone who is daring enough to walk away from habit and try something new. I decided to walk in because my yoga class would be a short one. On my way home the ‘sidewalks’ were almost absent of all people. There were only buskers who played for the love of it, not for the money. There were a few people who sat quietly, or talked in whispers as they felt the spray from the water fountain in the square.
As I walked across the bridge I was amazed at the still night, and my quiet mind. I looked up at the stars, dulled by the city lights. But the ones of magnitudes less than 4 could be seen. Venus and Jupiter were in one straight line when I walked in, the evening clouds now covered them. But still the sky was lovely to look at above the luminous river.
As I walked across the bridge I could hear the sound of the wind being cupped by my earlobes.The water slapped against the moored boats in their slips. I could hear the windchime-like batting of the bridge chains. In the still night quiet mind mode I could hear the cables rub against each other and the bridge structure. None of this can be heard in the day, cars travelling by, people jogging, walking, laughing, singing, leaving one state so easily for another. Crossing the bridge can be so symbolic. Crossing the bridge can be such a metaphore. Sooner or later we all need to cross the bridge and choose a still night quiet mind. This evening walk can be your evening walk. It can begin your step forward in meditation. It can be your delight found in the still night quiet mind.
Take a daring break from your nightly routine. Go outdoors, whether it is just outside your door, on your patio, your fireescape. Go outdoors and stroll down a street or path or sit and don’t speak for 5 minutes.
Try it to see how refreshed you become. How appreciative of the stillness, of the lack of noise.
Stay connected to this desire for peace. Come to Yoga by Donation and find it on your mat. Try a class that emphasizes the benefits of a quiet mind: Bruce’s Qigong , Monday’s Fluid Yoga, and Bob’s Revolutinary Yoga. Take a class that offers tools to discover the basis for the noise in the mind and then eliminate those catalysts. ( see The Work and Sacred Self Journaling)