I become what I see in myself. All that

thought suggests to me, I can do; all that

thought reveals in me, I can become.

This should be man’s unshakable faith

in himself, because God dwells in him.

Sri Aurobindo

Do you yearn for stillness inside, for silence, for a sense of Peace?

Perhaps you have felt it? A moment when you stood in nature, wondering at the beauty of a sunset, awed by the view from the top of a huge mountain? Or even in the simplicity of domestic life, maybe your thoughts dropped away, the colors around you became brighter, something shifted and suddenly, there it was: Presence, your presence filling up the space, opening your heart, quietening your mind.

A few of my clients have shared that in catastrophic situations, when there was a dire emergency that only they had the courage and strength to face and resolve, there was stillness and depth of presence like at no other moment. Perhaps you know what I mean?

What if I told you that this level of silence is possible all the time. That you can not only be free of thoughts and the agitation of the mind, but that you can be full inside while you move through your day. That you do not need to live in an Ashram or a monastery or retreat center, or become a hermit to do this. You can have this level of quiet internally in the middle of a hectic life.

To cut to the chase, if you are already very interested in this topic and you would like to talk personally with me, I am opening up some 30-minute sessions to speak on the phone or skype. To book your slot go to https://samanthakeen.com/gift/

Otherwise, you can come online to my Facebook live on Friday February 16th 2018, at 12pm PST/ 3pm EST.

So silence in your busy daily life is possible and it makes life so much more ALIVE. As Sat Prem says in his book Sri Aurobindo Or The Adventure of Consciousness

Instead of going through Grand Central Station four times a day like someone hounded and forever in a rush, we can walk there consciously, as a seeker. Instead of living haphazardly, dispersed in a multitude of thoughts, which not only lack any excitement but are also as exhausting as a broken record, we can gather the scattered threads of our consciousness and work on ourselves at every moment. Then life begins to become surprisingly exciting, because the least little circumstance becomes an opportunity for victory; we are focused; we are going somewhere instead of going nowhere.

I want you to know that it is possible, this kind of stillness, the quiet where the mind shuts up and the heart breaks open into a flow of presence and silent knowing. When this happens the contentment is awe-inspiring just like being at the top of an incredible mountain after a long day of hiking just in time to catch the magical splash of color across the sky as the Sun dives into night.

How do I know this? Through my own experience and that of clients that I have worked with in the past.

Let me tell you about my most recent experience of stillness.

Over Christmas and New Year, I spent 5 weeks in Australia with 3 of those glorious weeks at a retreat center in NSW with the Clairvision School of meditation, a school that I have studied with for 18 years, as well as where I am a senior instructor in the USA. I went to Australia as part of my own practice.

During the silent meditation where we sat still for 8 hours a day, and talked to no one in the breaks not even making eye contact – I was moved to tears more than once. The profundity of the silence, the depth of the spaces, the experience of myself breaking open into the unbearable lightness of Being.

It is difficult to pass what silence is really like. Sitting there with my eyes closed ‘trying’ to be still and quiet on the inside was like a raging bull fight for some of the time.

And still every single day, I found a way back to the center, back to the source of all sources, the center of the hurricane or cyclone to find something so light, so uplifting, and so full that my mind just disappeared. At the center of the hurricane, I found the silence and it became more and more solid. This center was something that I could rest on and come back to, it held itself.

I wish I could send you a mind video of the evening walk from the meditation hall down the hill towards the dining area on a golden paved pathway through bush with a view over the deep green valley and beyond. The feeling of pure weightlessness, and also to be honest deep relief, when the day is nearly done.

There were more than moments, long stretches of the experience which hung in timelessness, carrying a whiff of eternity. Where the breathe seemed to fall away, the mind was just empty, the presence of Being-ness filled me up with so much love I cannot really explain it.

The simple things light up in a space like that. At one point I realized that though I did not know some of the 20 or so people in the room meditating with me, I felt a deep connection with them and love.

Silence is so full and alive. As Sat Prem says of silencing the mind for the seeker in Sri Aurobindo or The Adventures of Consciousness:

The seeker has not silenced his mind to become like a log. His silence is not dead, it is alive. He tunes in upwards because he senses life there. Silence is not an end but a means, just as learning to read notes is a means to capture music; and there are many kinds of music.

How can you find this silence inside yourself?

Well this kind of stillness and presence can just pop into our lives at any time, as I described above. And it can be cultivated so that it is something you are able to choose at will. To get to the place where you can choose silence and stillness inside, even when you are in action, there are obstacles to overcome.

The obstacles to inner silence and stillness are inside of ourselves, mostly in the mind. When we meditate it is like having a magnifying glass amplify all of these obstacles. Some people might have emotions, or physical discomfort, or just lots and lots of thoughts.

Why is it hard for us to have inner peace all of the time, or really any time we choose?

We all have patterns and blockages in our consciousness that get in the way of the experience of connected inner stillness, even in our daily lives. We tend to blame the external world: “I am too busy, too stressed, too tired, or sleepy.”

But the blockages inside of ourselves are mirrored by our lives and they are no different than the ones we would experience in a silent retreat. If you resolve even one of these obstacles, then life simply changes to become more of a flow like the music described by Sat Prem.

The way that I work with clients using the Clairvision School style of Inner Space Techniques IST uses interactive meditation to go to the very source of the obstacles, such as the agitation, thoughts or emotions. When you get to the source of your blockages there is also the source of your Self and a real shift or resolution.

Helping clients to achieve this level of self acceptance and also letting go is just the most profoundly rewarding and wonderful thing I could ever imagine doing.

To give you a taste of what this is about I am putting together a series of articles and Facebook live videos, sharing with you important points about building this level of presence in your life.

To Begin: I want to talk with you about loving yourself completely and what that means.

Because to sit still and really be empty, there needs to be a real sense of peace with yourself.

Of course all of us have bits and pieces of our consciousness that we find difficult, or do not like or even actively try to get rid of. When you want stillness and silence, these things tend to get louder. In fact the more still you become the more “in your face” the ugly parts of yourself will be, in my experience.

So moving towards inner Peace and real silence must begin with facing the inner demons, or the things that we just actively do not want to see about ourselves.

If you are already very interested in this topic and you would like to talk personally with me, I am opening up some 30-minute sessions to speak on the phone or skype.

To book your slot go to https://samanthakeen.com/gift/

Otherwise, you can look out for my Facebook live on Friday February 16th 2018, at 12pm PST/ 3pm EST.