Oakville Zen Meditation
An expression of silence
Have you ever try to listen to silence for a few minutes? If not try it because it is a wonderful exercise to teach your mind how to rest and be ...quiet J. What is quiet outside becomes quiet inside because our mind listens to “nothing” and does not know what to do! We are creating some sort of ”short” in its circuits.
How to listen to “nothing”? Simply by being aware of it that is to focus, to be mindful to it. Rarely we are surrounded by total silence and our awareness can also be focused on various sounds coming to our ears.
What is awareness?
Awareness is BEING since it defines our essential nature that is consciousness. Awareness is a critical part of our inner self in whom the words on this page are being perceived and turned into thoughts. Without that awareness, there would be no perception, no thoughts, no sound, no words and no world. In fact we are awareness or consciousness disguised as a person.
The equivalent of our external noise is our inner thinking.
The equivalent of external silence is our inner quietness.
Whenever there is silence with or without few sounds learn to be just mindful to it. That means, just notice it and pay attention to it without analyzing it. When we focus on the silence around us, we are freezing our thinking mind because it does not know what to do since there is no sound to receive and analyze. You are just in a state of simple non-thinking awareness and this is the initial key to serenity.
Experiencing external silence triggers two important states:
Look at a tree, a flower, a plant, the moon, and a star. Let your awareness rests upon one of them. How still they are, how deeply rooted in ‘just being’. Allow Nature to teach your body and mind how to reach and practice stillness. When you look at a tree and perceive its stillness, you become “still” yourself. You connect with it at a very deep level. You feel one with whatever you perceive in and through stillness.
Feeling the oneness of self with all other living beings is not only true love but also the realization that we are not just an individual body but rather part of something far bigger and eternal called Universe.
While meditating, listen to silence and its surrounding sounds and focus on them as mind anchor. It will bring you a quiet and still mind quicker than any other classical focusing points.
Thank you. Ven. Ji Gong Sunim July 2015
