Sharing Silence

I plan to return to the Chapel at noon tomorrow (Wed) for weekly silent meditation. All are welcome. There are no strong rules to follow: simply try to sustain an environment of silence and let the mental and physical chatter of your life do as it will. The first bell will be rung at 12:10 and the last one at 12:40, but please enter and leave as you like.

For those who would like a bit more guidance, here are meditation instructions given by Jon Kabat-Zinn (founding director of the Stress Reduction Clinic and the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care and Society at the University of Massachusetts Medical School) to a group at Google headquarters in Silicon Valley:

“OK. So what we know. We have a body, relatively speaking, and we’re here now. So let’s see if we can tune into now for no other reason than just for fun. OK? Just not to get anywhere, to be more relaxed, to become a great meditator, to break through, you know, some problems that you’re having, whatever it is, but to just see if you can hold this moment in awareness. You don’t even have to shift your posture; you just hold this moment in awareness.

“Now, there’s a lot going on because, as I said, I mean even if we limited it to five senses — if your eyes are open, they’re seeing. Your ears you can’t close so there’s hearing. OK? Your nose you can’t close so there’s some kind of sensing going on through the nose, some aroma of rug and wall and …. There is whatever the sensations are in the mouth. And there is the contact of the back with the back of the chair and your butt with the chair and if you’re on the floor, you know. Let’s see — and there’s, of course, one aspect of propioception which is, interestingly enough, without any of it on our part — thank god, because otherwise we would’ve died long ago for just, like, forgetting, getting distracted — we’re breathing. So see if you can just feel yourself breathing.

So if the mind wanders, you know what’s on your mind, you bring it back. If it wanders 10,000 times, you know what’s on your mind 10,000 times. And without judging, condemning, forcing, blaming, just come back to this moment, this breath. Each breath a new beginning. Each out breath a complete letting go. And, voilà, here you are again. Right here. No agenda. Just this moment. Just this breath. Just this sitting here. Outside of time, if you will.” (quoted from the Dec 27, 2012 episode of On Being):