Stillness 6-15: In the European Middle Ages, when the word “encounter” first emerged, the knights of yore used to go on their legendary quests that involved slaying dragons, rescuing damsels in distress, or vanquishing tyrants. Their encounters had to do with fights and opportunities. The word “encounter” stems from the Old French encontre which implies “against” or “counter to.” It used to mean confronting, opposing, meeting as an adversary. To encounter meant to challenge.
Although now we use the word to refer to a chance meeting or a casual crossing of paths, the old meaning still resonates. All day, every day, we encounter that which we have to oppose or defend or fight for. Maybe we aren’t literally jousting knights, but the forests we travel through are just as deep and dark as they ever were. Nowadays, these forests show up as our mind and the wild beasts challenging us are our thoughts. They rise up from behind imagined shrubs, or screeching at us from the terrifying sky, or like mythological creatures they emerge from stormy waves or a snorting fire from a fearsome cave. Nowadays, our thoughts are our greatest danger.
What can we do to defend, protect, assail, and fight against destructive and harmful thinking? We need to be diligent, strong, brave, and true. We need to rise up to meet the monstrous ideas and concepts that are so harmful to ourselves, our friends, our community, our world. Whether they show up as cruelty, greed, ignorance, shame, or injustice raise your sword—your words—to defend truth and the good.
When a thought arises that is destructive or hurtful to you or to others or to our world, it must be crushed. When a thought comes at you that makes you feel powerless or weak, lift your shield and sword and slay it. Usually, it will simply turn away and vanish. Thoughts have no power of their own, only the power you give to them. You are not fated to have a thought—it’s up to you to create it, feed it, or demolish it. So keep your thoughts raised high and your words pure. Then every encounter you have becomes heroic, life-saving, and life-changing.