When Time Stands Still

Soulfulness is not an experience of thinking, but of the cessation of thinking, a lull in thinking and feeling and all that we imagine defines us as human. Soulfulness is a halt. Self-presence, which is different from self-consciousness, is the gateway. The moment time stands still is a soulful experience. The key word in the saying that "time stood still" is not "time" but "still". What one touches in self-presence is not one&s;s self, but stillness. This stillness is not self. On the other hand, there is nothing more soulful than stillness. "Soul" and "still" are two words that are virtually synonymous. Noise disrupts stillness. Music can explore silence. The Debussy and Sibelius entries in the Play List are in their individual ways powerful instances of this. Time can stand still in so many ways when one listens to something beautiful; beauty arrests time.