Self-cultivation involves one’s active participation in changing the microcosm. Achieving stillness is not something that one falls into spontaneously; it is a prize to be attained through diligent application. Taoism teaches that the wonders of stillness are inexhaustible; its source is emptiness and its cultivation is necessary to attain the Way (realization or enlightenment) within oneself (Kaiguo & Shunchao). “The way to get into quiet stillness is to gradually eliminate random thoughts of personal desires, sweeping away the obstacles to the growth of primal spirit and energy, making the pathway even.”
Ann Coyle