It is easy to understand how material things and material well-being can become so important, and easy to forget that they are nevertheless ephemeral. We know this – though it is not usually admitted – especially when we encounter the limit situations and reality checks which insist on intruding into even the most protected of lives. What we do not know is how to reach beyond the ephemeral and touch Reality.
Why are silence, solitude and stillness so important if one wants to pierce through the ephemeral? It struck me the other day that life is like a roller-coaster. There is a long steep climb to begin, then a rushing series of highs and lows, soaring loops and plunging dives, swerving changes of direction until one enters the gradual descent to the end. Such is the speed of the ride and the pressure of events that there is no time to become aware of the wider fairground. But it is possible to stop the roller-coaster, or at least freeze-frame the action and become aware of the wider scene – the framework on which it is built, the adjoining stalls and rides, the car park, the roads and even the peaceful countryside beyond. We may even discover that, while we cannot get off the roller coaster until it finishes its journey, its speed and direction are not entirely beyond our control.