The contemplative’s inner stance is not one of being swept downriver along with everything else. The contemplative’s repose is not a passive state but an engaged, silent receptivity, “an ever moving repose,” as St. Maximus the Confessor calls it. Like a riverbed, which is constantly receiving and letting go in the very same moment. Vigilant receptivity and non-clinging release are one and the same for this riverbed awareness as it constantly receives all coming from upstream while at the very same moment releasing all downstream.

Martin Laird, OSA