There was an old woman who maintained at the edge of the clearing on the foot of the mountain. Out of percept and open sky, she welded her wisdom of the everyday and the extraordinary. She was Indian, mostly some mix. She claimed the mountain was a still point around which all moving was done. Being a still point, the continents revolved around it, or so she had it.
From time to time, she received seekers. One such man came to her, early October. He presented himself, saying: “I wish your instruction in ways of energy, for it is known that you can tap and direct your energy for the everyday and the extraordinary.” She replied, “I can only show you the beginning of the walkway of one of the three ways of energy.” He nodded his assent. She quickly disappeared into her abode and returned with a human skeleton pieced together with rawhide. Holding the skeleton by the skull, she carefully placed its feet on the earth. For a time, she balanced each bone on top of the last, until she was able to release the skeleton. And it stood, perfectly balanced. She said: “This is the doorway.”
She continued: “One of the three ways of energy is stillness. But as with all paths, it must he traveled correctly. The stillness of which I speak is a center around which moving is done. And do not confuse this stillness with collapse, rest, or even that which they now call relaxation. For this stillness has a power, even as someone coming upon this standing skeleton for the First time would say that IT has power. You may think of the stillness of buds to the normal channels of perception, completely still; but inside, teeming with the processes that are its life. Or consider the ocean depths: intense enough to drive the waves over f of our existence. The crouch of a cat the eye of the hurricane. And every genuine creation throughout the generations of man has issued from this stillness.
“Now I will walk with you through the doorway. Notice that the lintel is inscribed with the word settle. You must also realize that the actual traveling on this way will engage you for your lifetime. The image you must hold to is that of a muddy stream in which the silt settles to the bottom, leaving the stream clear. It matters not if you settle your mind, your heart, or your body – for to reach the stillness in anyone of these will give you the others. This is because you will have reached the state of no distortion: you will be completely you. I have chosen to settle the body. If you too wish to travel this path to stillness, you must learn to use the most elemental force field acting on man gravity. Thus when we lie, we give up our bones to its ceaseless claim. Totally, without a single holding back. That much in itself will engage your lifetime. But when we begin to practice the art of settling while standing, we must find the way to stand as our friend here stands-without contracting a single strand of muscle or firing a single synapse to resist the very force we are trying to use creatively — gravity. That is a practice almost beyond our comprehension.
“There is but one test you can apply. If you have achieved the standing stillness, you will be able to move in any ONE direction as effortlessly as moving in any OTHER direction. You will have thus actualized all of your inherent action possibilities. Ponder this, for therein lies the power of the stillness. Try it now: stand until you have found that center allowing you movement in every direction. Return to this state whenever you need direct your energy. That is all I can tell you. The practice itself must become your teacher hereafter.”
She walked to the edge of the clearing and blew the lightest of breaths from her lips. Across the clearing, the skeleton moved. She laughed, saying, “Find the stillness and you will be that responsive 😮 the breath of life.”
Editor’s note: This is the second of four allegories by Frank Wiedemann. The allegories first appeared in Unified Fields published by Mr. Wiedemann in Telluride, Colorado.- A.L.A., editor
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