MEDITATION

”… Meditation is not about escaping life or trying to reach an utopian mind-set. Neither is it a question of mental gymnastics. Meditation simply is, what is, and there is nothing mystical about that… we find a way of approaching reality, and it’s a way of becoming one with the present moment.”

- Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche founder of Shambhala training, a path of meditation in a secular way

“Why is silence emphasised in meditation? One thing is, I would like you to discover the connection between silence and awareness. Another is, silence can create a lot of space in our mind.

It is interesting that in English the letters that we use for the words listen and silence are the same. So if you can be silent, you can listen. You can listen to the sounds around us. If we start to speak it will not be possible to hear the sounds. And what is more important is, you can also learn to listen to yourselves. Someone has defined meditation as learning to listen to life. Can we listen to our thoughts and can we listen to our emotions? Can we listen to our body? So, with more and more silence we will be learning to listen to what is happening outside and we will also be learning to listen more and more to what is happening inside.”

Godwin Samararatne, founder of Nilambe Buddhist Meditation Centre in Sri Lanka, on silence from the book “Meditation for Everyday Life”