Being Still

Urban Sadhu Exploration April 2025

PYS 1.3 tadā draṣṭuḥ svarūpe-avasthānam 

Meaning:   When the mind is still, the seeker realizes that the Self abides in its own nature. – Interpretation by Austin Sanderson

We often hear about the "monkey mind" in yoga – a mind that jumps from one thought to the next, active and restless. The body is a mirror of the mind and will mimic what the mind is doing. Like the old saying “monkey see, monkey do,” the monkey's mind moves, and the monkey's friend (the body) reacts with movement. In yoga we must train one of the monkeys (the mind) not to act out and the other monkey (the body) not to respond. The first step in training the over-active monkey mind is to train the physical body.

Training the body is much easier than teaching the restless mind to be still. Yoga asana is a physical preparation and training that helps us to develop the necessary endurance to stay in a stressful position for a given amount of time (no, yoga asana is not just about relaxation). In yoga asana class, for example, when you are in Virabhadrasana II (warrior two), your arms are stretched parallel to the earth, and your shoulders and muscles strain to keep the arms lifted. You want to lower your arms just for a second, but you don't because you know that by keeping the arms lifted you will develop stronger shoulder muscles. Or think of a Yin method class where you may sit in an asana such as Virasana (hero seat) for three to five minutes without shifting or fidgeting. As uncomfortable as Virasana is, you sit with it because you know that being still in Virasana for that long will open up the quad muscles. This act of committing oneself to an asana and sticking to it to the end is both a physical and mental training that prepares us for the discipline and dedication needed for deep meditation.

Stillness in the body and the mind requires us to confront and embrace our discomfort. Discomfort can come in many forms, starting with your foot falling asleep or your back hurting. Physical discomfort leads to more complex issues: cultural conditioning, fear of introspection, disconnection from the body, anxiety disorders, or perceived feelings of unproductiveness can all contribute to physical movement in the body when practicing stillness, but all these conditions are reflections of the mind's mental gymnastics.

The Sanskrit word asana translates into "seat.” A seat is a connection. The English word stillness, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, means "the absence of movement or sound," and the Cambridge Dictionary states that stillness is "a total lack of movement or changing of positions." When we look up synonyms for stillness in Merriam-Webster's Thesaurus we get words such as "restfulness," "tranquility," "serenity," "harmony," "peacefulness," and "placidity"; the opposite of stillness is "unrest," "turmoil," "adjuration," "clamor," and "pandemonium." In the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, the great sage tells us sthira-sukham-asanam (PYS 2.46): asana, the connection to the earth, should be “steady, still (sthira), happy, pleasant, joyful, and willing (sukham)." According to Patanjali, yoga is a space of stillness in both the body and the mind. Stillness is "peace of mind."

Why is it so hard to sit still and to still the mind at the same time? Patanjali is wise to the fact that the mind is the source of agitation and restlessness in both the mind and the body. His second sutra tells us, yogah-citta-vritti-nirodhah (PYS 1.2), or, "To achieve yoga, reunification with the [higher] Self, one must still the fluctuations of the mind." He is straightforward: whatever the mind is doing, the body will be doing. To prevent the monkey mind from making fools of us, we must devise ways of incorporating the training of both monkeys simultaneously. This is why yoga is more than just asanas.

When I started incorporating a more extended, more profound meditation practice into my yoga sadhana, I would play a game with myself. I would go to meditation class, where we would sit motionless for twenty to thirty minutes; I would make a deal with myself, “If you don't move during the meditation, you can buy yourself a vegan brownie in the café after the class." Rewarding myself with a vegan treat did work; I learned to sit still, but I gained ten pounds, and unfortunately, inside, my mind was as noisy as a discothèque. I had to lose the ten pounds and figure out how to quiet my mind while remaining physically still. I did two things: I incorporated pranayama of deep, equal inhales and exhales that I observed as the witness, and I turned my inner focus to God. My inspiration for this was a biblical verse from Psalm 46:10, "Be still and know that I am God."

It's important to state that I am not advocating religious dogma. But to find stillness, we must have something higher than the body and mind to focus on, and for me, the concept of God was easy to embrace. It’s not important what or who you see as God or God-like; the key is to focus on something higher than the personal ego. Some people will feel comfortable with this concept of God, others will not. Those who do not connect with the concept of God must focus on other esoteric ideas such as soul, spirit, or higher consciousness. The inspiration for the stillness we are all looking for has many different names and concepts. We should not let our limited vocabulary stop us from seeking serenity and inner peace.

Mother Teresa, whom some consider to have great spiritual insights, once said, "We need to find God, and He cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. See how nature – the trees, flowers, grass – grow in silence; see the stars, moon and the sun, how they move in silence…we need silence to be able to touch soul." Our true divine nature is stillness. By focusing on the divine in yoga asana and meditation, we offer our efforts up to something higher. We start to understand that we are not the body, not the mind. We can begin to still the monkey mind and the knee-jerk reactions of the body and abide in our true nature, peace, joy, and bliss.

 Austin Sanderson, Urban Sadhu