Stillness means being effortless. When we are still, we are not making an effort. Not an effort of the will, which is why, in meditation, we are not willing ourselves to love God, or willing ourselves to love ourselves, or willing ourselves to love our neighbour. We are entering into this effortless and totally natural state. The ego, which is always trying to do things full of effort, finds stillness its greatest challenge, because in stillness we stop trying, we stop making these efforts. In stillness, we discover a new freedom, a freedom that lies beyond effort, beyond our egocentric wills: the effortless being, of being in harmony with the flow of life.
(Aspects of Love 2 by Laurence Freeman OSB )
