First of all, I would like to wish you all the best for Christmas! Merry Christmas, Frohe Weihnachten, Feliz Navidad, Bon Nadal and Joyeux Noël! To those of you who celebrate Christmas have nice little gatherings together. To those of you who do not celebrate it and who might read this article I wish a few days of rest and serenity among family & friends. I think about those who cannot celebrate it and I dearly hope there will be a better time ahead of them.
I sometimes reread books from the past, not very often though. Yesterday I browsed through a book called Wege zur Ruhe. The English title is Instant Calm. The author, Paul Wilson, has collected many pieces of advice for us to unwind and gives loads of pratical exercises, both from oriental and occidental cultures. I think it is a valuable book for almost everyone these days. Calmness and silence are from the same semantic field but different though.
One chapter of the book is about the inner attitude. The first exercise he suggests in this chapter is the “Space Perspective” (pp. 130-131). It takes one minute and is for people who worry a lot and therefore cannot calm down. Close your eyes and visualize the room where you are in. Consider how you have put your furniture. Then go above the house in your mind. You see the house and its immediate environment. Gardens, parks, people walking up and down the streets, shops, traffic lights, … You rise a bit higher as if you were in a balloon. You see the whole city, suburbs, neighbouring towns and villages… Your city is no more than a sparkling sea of lights. You rise a bit higher and the colours of your continent blur. Welcome in Space! Now, the earth is no more than a beautiful ball floating through space. A little light. A piece of dust in our galaxy. From here, some of our problems seem to be insignificant. Some of them. If you repeat the exercise, you can go directly into space. Of course, this is only one little exercise among several but I think it is quite original. In the end, everybody has to find out what suits him best. In most cases it is a mixture of different exercises for inside and outside.
One emblem of calmness is Buddha and I would like to translate a little story for you. It is taken from a book I found by chance in a little library in Girona (Gerona): Cuentos de Amor y Amistad. The story is called “Talante de Ecuanimidad. The title is a bit difficult to translate maybe. I would translate it as “The Way to Equanimity”[1], which is close to serenity. In German we have the nice word Gelassenheit. When you are gelassen, you are calm, composed. Here is my little translation.
“The Way to Equanimity”
A man who disagreed with Buddha’s lessons met him one day and spat into his face. Then, they both followed their way. Some days afterwards they met again. Buddha looked calmly into his eyes and smiled benevolently. The other man was very much surprised and said:
“But how is it possible that you are so serene and that you also smile at me in a friendly way after what happened a few days ago?”
“Very easy, my friend, said Buddha without moving. “Neither you are the person who spat at me any more nor I am the one who received the spit. Go in peace.“ (p.90)
I would like to finish with a quote from a little booklet, one of these beautiful little books I cherish:
“Wer lächelt, statt zu toben, ist immer der Stärkere.” (Aus Japan)
“Those who smile instead of shouting are the stronger ones.” (From Japan)
Serenity. Equanimity. A long way or a short journey?
[1] Maybe talante can also be translated with temper: “Calm Temper”. It reminds me of the word talent. I don’t know if there is a linguistic connection. But “The Talent to Remain Calm” would make sense as well.