We returned recently from an extraordinary 13-day trip rafting down the Grand Canyon.
The Grand Canyon was our Grand Teacher - Teacher of silence, of presence, of letting life flow. Billions of years of history are embedded in the rocks, cut thousands of feet deep by the endless flow of the Colorado River, assisted by storms and geologic upheavals.
Night after night, we lay listening to the river and gazing up the billion year old canyon walls to the starlit canopy above, nestled and content in the exquisite hand of nature. After a week or so, it became clear that it wasn't the river's sound, but the supreme quiet around the sound, that it wasn't the stars, but the deep space between the stars, that somehow held the deep tranquility together.
The latest research shows that the average American stares at a screen of some sort for 8½ hours a day, lingers a mere ten seconds on any given image before moving on, and applies only two or three minutes of concentration between distractions. External noises - city streets, television, loud music, mindless chatter - play on our ears day and night.
Yet, could it be that deep tranquility - the space, the silence - is here right now, for each of us, only a conscious breath away? Must we be sleeping under the stars to appreciate space, or lying by a river to be grateful for silence? Or can we find the deep tranquility of a place like the Grand Canyon right where we are, this very moment, even if it is sitting in front of a computer screen in a noisy office?
It's a conscious choice to get centered, to feel the spacious quiet around us, to breathe in the mystery. Take a moment right now. Close your eyes, get centered. Now wait for the next thought. Notice the space, the silence, before that thought appears. This is your portal to deep tranquility.
A wintry gust
Disappears amid the bamboos,
And subsides to a calm
-Basho
Mark your Calendars
