Sitting In Silence

We have different organs in our human body that have specific roles.

• Our Heart pumps blood.
• The function of our lungs is to supply oxygen to the body to survive.
• The role of our stomach and intestines is to digest food and supply nutrients for the body.
• Kidneys act as the filter for our blood.

What is the role of our Brain?

It is to regulate our body, control movements and influence emotions, etc. Our Mind is a dimension of our Brain, and its function is to think. Unfortunately, when our Mind is very active, it gets very caught up in thinking about the past or the future to a point where we miss the present moment awareness.

Through Meditation, we can train our Mind in awareness. Meditation is not about “emptying the mind,” “clearing the mind,” or “stopping thoughts.”. It is about learning to observe our thoughts without judgment or attachment, as if in the third person.

We don’t want our Heart to stop doing what it should do. We don’t wish our Lungs’ or Stomach to stop doing with they have to do. Then why this misimpression that the Mind should somehow stop doing what its role is just because we are sitting in Meditation.

Here’s an easy way to think of Meditation. Imagine you are sitting on the side of a busy road. The traffic on the road is your thoughts and feelings. Meditation is the process of sitting by the side of the road and observe the traffic pass by. This is not very easy. What usually happens though is instead of observing the traffic, we get into the middle of the road, trying to stop the movement of the vehicles. We may even try chasing after a few cars forgetting that the objective was to just sit in silence on the side as an observer.

The training is to become aware whenever you find yourself chasing some cars(thoughts), you bring yourself back to the side of the road, sitting in silence and observing the traffic.

We are used to a life of “busyness,” where our Mind is always on a thinking mode without rest. When we cultivate the practice of sitting in silence, to observe our thoughts, we start recognizing patterns and get ideas about how to regulate the traffic better. In the silence is the opportunity for personal transformation.

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