Silence, stillness, slowness

An idea that’s stayed with me from The Wisdom of Insecurity by Alan Watts (a book with flavours of Zen and Daoism) is:

Science and industry have increased the tempo and violence of living.

In particular, the modern world seems quite obsessed with speed. It shows up especially clearly when technology is involved: it tends to facilitate and encourage speed.

Silence to stillness to slowness

This got me thinking about silence and stillness. Stillness feels like a large container. Silence feels like stillness in sound.

I let that sit for a bit, then realised that stillness isn’t quite right.

• Reality is one complex flow.
• The world is alive an moving all the time.
• Motion is a key part of life.

So maybe slowness is more what I’m circling around. Not stopping, but slowing.

In Tao: The Watercourse Way, another Alan Watts book, I picked out:

Curb your ambition.
Slow your tempo.
Work with your hands.

Slow your tempo and pay clear, focused, attention. For me, this connects to the sacred pause. Take a pause to be able to pay more clear, more focused, attention.

Kaizen

This also connects to smallness. I enjoyed The Kaizen Way by Robert Maurer. It talks about small steps, many times. That’s in line with things like Atomic Habits and Tiny Habits which suggest small steps as ways to build habits and make change.

• It’s difficult to take big steps slowly.
• It’s easy to take small steps slowly.

Now what?

• Slow your breathing
• Slow your actions
• Slow your reactions

Take your time. Not: be lazy. More like: be considered and careful.

• Slow your speech: be more quiet.
• Slow your hearing: listen more carefully.
• Slow your looking: see more of the detail.
• Slow your touching: notice more closely the sensations.
• Slow your eating: eat with more attention.

Added 2023-12-05, last updated 2023-12-06.