The Final Teaching - Be Still and Know

Rama spoke with both exhaustion and earnestness: "O Sage, you have taught me so much—stories within stories, philosophies upon philosophies, practices and perspectives beyond count. My mind is full to overflowing. Now I ask: what is the simplest teaching? If I could carry only one instruction for the rest of my life, what would it be?"

Vasishtha was silent for a long moment. The silence itself seemed to teach. Then he spoke with unusual simplicity:

"Be still."

Rama waited for more, but Vasishtha remained silent. Finally Rama asked: "Just... be still? No practice? No inquiry? No effort?"

"All practices lead to stillness. All inquiries dissolve in stillness. All efforts exhaust themselves into stillness. Why not go directly to the destination?"

"But how do I be still when my mind is so active?"

Vasishtha replied: "You are already still. Beneath the movements of mind, there is awareness that does not move. Beneath the turbulence of thoughts, there is a silence that is never disturbed. You do not need to create stillness; you need to notice the stillness that already exists."

Rama tried: "I notice thoughts arising..."

"Who notices? That which notices is itself still. A moving thing cannot observe movement clearly. Only stillness can perceive motion. The very fact that you can observe your thoughts proves that you are not those thoughts. You are the stillness in which thoughts appear and disappear."

"But when I try to be still, more thoughts come!"

Vasishtha laughed softly: "The one who tries to be still is another thought! Do not try. Simply recognize. Right now, as you sit here, as these words enter your ears, as your mind interprets them—is there not a background of pure awareness in which all this happens? Is there not a space in which thoughts arise? That space is never disturbed by thoughts, just as the sky is never disturbed by clouds."

Rama closed his eyes. After a moment, he said: "There is something... unchanging... while everything else changes."

"Stay with that. Do not name it. Do not describe it. The moment you say 'I found it,' you have lost it, for the 'I' that claims to find is itself a thought arising in what was found. Simply be what you are, without any attempt to be anything."

"And this is liberation?"

"This is liberation. Not an achievement, not a state to be maintained, but a recognition of what was always so. The sage differs from the ordinary person not by having attained something new, but by having stopped overlooking what was always present. The stillness you touch now is the same stillness that was present in your happiest moment and your most miserable. It is untouched by any experience. It is what you truly are."

Rama opened his eyes: "What about all the practices, the stories, the teachings?"

Vasishtha smiled: "They were all fingers pointing to this moon. Useful for those who need direction, but once you see the moon, you no longer need to study the finger. Some minds need elaborate paths; others can simply stop. For you, in this moment, I give the simplest path: stop seeking, stop striving, stop asking. Be still. Be what you are."

"And if thoughts arise?"

"Let them. The sky does not struggle against clouds. Let thoughts come, let them go. You are not concerned with them. In the space of stillness, thoughts are like distant birds flying across the sky—seen, not grasped, not rejected, just noticed and released."

Rama sat in silence. Minutes passed, or perhaps hours—time seemed irrelevant. When he finally spoke, his voice had changed:

"There is nothing to do. There never was."

Vasishtha blessed him: "Now you are no longer my student. You are my equal. What I have taught you, you have always known. What I have pointed to, you have always been. Go now and live freely. Or stay—it matters not. The stillness goes with you, for it is you. Be still, Rama, and know that you are That."