Stopping brings your body and mind together, back to the here and now. When you stop and sit quietly and become silent within, you become more solid, more concentrated, and clear. Often we tell ourselves, “Don’t just sit there, do something!” But when we practice awareness, we discover that the opposite may be more helpful: “Don’t just do something, sit there!” We must learn to stop from time to time in order to see clearly. This is not just a reaction; it is a way of life. Humankind’s survival depends on our ability to stop rushing.
Compassionate listening has one purpose: to help the other person suffer less. Many of us have lost our capacity for listening and using loving speech. So we feel very lonely even with our loved ones. Understanding is the foundation of love. If you cannot understand yourself, you cannot love yourself. If you cannot understand your loved ones, you cannot love them. When communication is cut off, we all suffer. When we recognize our own suffering and that of our loved ones, our compassion grows and we suffer less. Healing can begin.
Thanks to our ability to stop, we are able to observe. That is mindfulness. The more deeply we observe, the greater our mental concentration becomes. Stopping and collecting our mind, we naturally become able to see. This is insight. In observing, the mind becomes increasingly still. We do not need to search for anything more.
