It is not lying around
It is not maintaining one position
It is not counting breaths
although counting breaths helps to get to a certain kind of stillness
It is not abut mantras,
although repeating a mantra helps to quiet the busy rambling thoughts
You can’t be still when you are trying to be still because then you are so busy with the trying that there is no stillness.
Think about when someone tells you to relax and every muscle across your shoulders and down into the arches of your feet tense. Or perhaps you just become aware of the tension and then tense more at the idea of having to relax . Its not until you let go the idea of relaxing that you do relax.
It has nothing to do with giving up or giving in.
But it has everything to do with surrender,
as in letting go of resistance and breathing through the heart.
I got still yesterday, really still. I sat in front of the fire just as the rain turned to snow and I could see out both sides of my house, north and south. I watched the world go from gray to white. I was stilled. It was magic.