What is stillness?

[native]

I read Nestor's book too (and have done the Wim stuff), which finally spurred me to actually formally read about yoga, the classic texts etc., since yoga is the system those two were coming from, as well as considering that so much of the esoteric comes from yoga. There are various schools of yoga that cross-pollinate and have all kinds of opinions, techniques, and conclusions, but you might be interested in reading the Mandukya Upanishad (I recommend Enlightenment without God by Swami Rama. Swami Rama is one of the yogis mentioned in Nestor's book). For many yogis, the goal is samadhi, the ultimate stillness that you're talking about which is described in various Upanishads but summarized succinctly in the Mandukya.

The Mandukya says there are 3 states of consciousness, culminating in the fourth. There is the waking state (realm of the senses), the dreaming state, and deep sleep (which isn't really sleep but pure stillness/transcendent awareness). We enter this state each night but don't remember it. One can access it various ways, but one technique is called yoga nidra. It's explained in Rama's book, but I also recommend Yoga Nidra by Saraswati. I could keep going but it would be long. The Mandukya explains how AUM (Om) represents these three states, what they mean, how everything is made of sound/vibration etc.

Yoga is interesting but I don't like to commit to any one teaching in particular these days. Although I would like to explore yoga nidra further.