by Jan Diepersloot
Though posture is often thought of as stillness as opposed to movement, actually our posture must be considered a type of movement also. In other words, the stillness we are talking about is not the stillness of death as opposed to the movement of life. It is not the comparative stillness of plants as opposed to the movements of animals. It is not the (relative) stillness of sleep, not the stillness of couch potato TV-watching, not the stillness of paralysis, not the stillness of passed out stupor, nor any other stillness in which the machinery for movement and its controlling mechanism have been fully or partially shut down. No, the stillness we cultivate in our standing (postural) meditation entails readiness, a stillness that is pregnant with possibilities for movement. It is the stillness of a deer ready to bolt and flee, the stillness of the tiger ready to pounce. The stillness we are talking about, in other words is movement not yet released. It is the stillness of potential movement as opposed to actual movement. In this stillness, awareness enables us to respond to the environment rather than react to it.
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