Korpo

There's a fallacy contained in the statement "I relax." Because relaxation is not something you put there. It is not brought in. It is not induced. It's in there.

However, often we cannot "relax." This is not necessarily because we lack a skill. There's a capacity to relax, a condition created by removing obstacles to relaxation. Relaxation happens when irritations and resistances go away.

So, the circumstances we create to aid our efforts of "relaxation" are often things that make space for this to happen. It does not guarantee it will happen. Stimulants, stress, a flurry of activities, bad habits of thought and reaction - they all come back at us when we "try to relax."

When we create these conditions, when we sit down to meditate, when we lay down to relax, when we try to doze, when we lay down to sleep, everything that is inside that is not aligned with inner peace screams and runs around and bangs its gongs and kicks over the bass drum. It's excess mental energy that keeps the mental motor running till the tank is empty.

Relaxation can therefore not be enforced. Meditation does not create inner peace. Often what it initially does is just release a lot of random noise that is on top of a more relaxed self beneath. Then you find the first layer of peace, and the second, and the third. Sometimes you have to scrape off newly accumulated noise. But the more you dip into that pool of peace, the less noise accumulates, the more space is available to deal with everything coming towards you.

Relaxation is the primal condition.