Entering Stillness

Of the many yoga practices we have on this path, a few lead directly to stillness. But why do we even want stillness?
In the domain of yoga we have the practice of meditation; this is to bring inner stillness, right? I asked my teacher, why do we do this practice of meditation? She said it is to attain the steady state. We want knowledge about meditation and experience of the steady state to just be happy in everything we do. After all, only the mind suffers! In the steady state, the mind is just the watcher in the present moment. No fear about the future, no regret from the past, just the contentment of here and now. The steady state becomes present in both our meditation practice, and our life in the world. We see things just as they are. We are content and happy.
We notice that simply sitting for meditation does not still the mind. How do we step back from the noise of the ego drama? Within Patanjali’s Eight Limbs of Yoga he gives us the transcendent pranayama (Sutra 2.51) Commonly this is called Kumbhaka Pranayama. At the top and bottom of the breath we can pause; then observe that the mind is quiet. We focus our attention at the still-point between the breaths, then remain focused on the still-point as you finish the breath. Then, repeat.
In the fifteenth century, Yogi Svatmarama (Hatha Yoga Pradipika) tells us that when the breath is still, the mind will be still. So we go to the still-point in the pause between the breaths, and breathe-in the stillness. In this, we enter stillness. This is the practice of focus on the kumbhaka still-point. This is entering stillness. This is surrender to the serenity and happiness of our true Self.
Daily practice of the stillness in meditation brings the stillness into us to reflect back into the world. Once we know the address of the stillness, we now have a choice of ego drama or steady state. Happiness and contentment is always present, just behind the mind. Now we have a choice about who is looking out of these eyes, the watcher, or the seeker.