September 6th ~ I do not know if you have noticed that there is understanding when the mind is very quiet, even for a second; there is the flash of understanding when the verbalization of thought is not. Just experiment with it and you will see for yourself that you have the flash of understanding, that extraordinary rapidity of insight, when the mind is very still, when thought is absent, when the mind is not burdened with its own noise. So, the understanding of anything–of a modern picture, of a child, of your wife, of your neighbor, or the understanding of truth, which is in all things–can only come when the mind is very still. But such stillness cannot be cultivated because if you cultivate a still mind, it is not a still mind, it is a dead mind.
The more you are interested in something, the more your intention to understand, the more simple, clear, free the mind is. Then verbalization ceases. After all, thought is word, and it is the word that interferes. It is the screen of words, which is memory, that intervenes between the challenge and the the response. It is the word that is responding to the challenge, which we call intellection. So, the mind that is chattering, that is verbalizing, cannot understand truth–truth in relationship, not an abstract truth. There is no abstract truth. But truth is very subtle…
Like a thief in the night, it comes darkly, not when you are prepared to receive it.
November 1st, 2019 ~ Do see that “even for a second” in the 2nd line? It is not as if we are shooting for long periods of time. It gives me hope when I see seconds and not minutes, hours or days. It was after 2 weeks of meditating daily that I noticed a conversation going on in my head. Up until that point (30+ years of my life), I did not know that was happening. “Stillness” is my “happy word” or focus word when it comes to meditation. I have to be still to observe my thoughts and see that interval between thoughts. K says even “stillness” cannot be cultivated.