Inner Work
John David encourages to reduce talking to essentials.
Being in Silence is a powerful way to reduce the noise and activity of the mind.
One thing I can say is that there are different types of mind, of thought. We’re not very troubled by practical thoughts. We use the practical mind to solve a problem such as how to get to the airport, and when the problem is solved the thoughts stop. But there is another kind of thinking that goes something like this: What might happen on the way to the airport? Maybe I don’t have time. Maybe there are two entrances to the airport. Maybe we will have a crash on the way. There’s a traffic jam. These kinds of thoughts are generated by the thinking mind and when our thinking minds are not very quiet they can go round and round inside.
In order to live your life you need practical thoughts. In order to cook dinner you have to know where to get the groceries and how to use the stove, but thinking about a bad dinner last night and how you drank too much wine, this is a never-ending disturbance. These are the kind of thoughts that trouble us.
You’re asking if you need to slow down in order to quieten your mind. We often think of a ‘spiritual’ environment as being very silent, very quiet. My own spiritual schooling was in an ashram in India. The guru understood that we westerners have busy minds, so he set it up in a way that kept us busy half the day and meditating the other half. In this busy-ness we gradually learnt how, despite being busy on the outside, we could keep quiet inside by not identifying with and hanging onto our thoughts.
Self-realisation happens in the moment when you disappear. Your ego is no longer in the driving seat, when you realise deeply inside that the thought – say ‘I need exercise’ – is simply a thought. And not a thought that comes out of the reality of that moment, but a thought that comes out of the conditioned mind, probably originating many years before.
We’re constantly caught up with these conditioned ideas. So, what to do? One thing you can do is to become self-aware. That means to look inside and to be aware about what’s happening.
So the invitation is to look, to be self-aware, to shine some conscious light onto your ideas. If you keep focused on the inner world you will come to a point when you can catch the arising of this thought without getting attached to it – ‘Ah, there is that idea about exercise and happiness again.’ In order to catch that moment we need to be very willing and to become very quiet. It’s difficult because we’re so attached to certain structures that arise. They seem to be completely normal, in fact we call them ‘me’.
Meditation
If you meditate regularly that creates a quiet mind. My suggestion is that you find a meditation that you like doing and then do it regularly, every day. Sometimes people have very strong experiences in their first meditation, but for most people with busy minds it requires patience. The benefits usually come slowly, but if you meditate for long enough you will certainly fall into moments of great silence where the thoughts actually just stop or where thoughts appear but you are not bothered by them, not identified with them. In order to have fear or stress or jealousy you have to have thoughts. You only feel jealous when there is a thought, so falling into this deep silence is a relief and encourages you to continue the meditation. Having a quiet mind is not an awakening or Self-realisation, but this quiet mind, without a lot of busy thoughts, creates a clean place or clear field for a moment of clear seeing.
Identification with the ‘I’, the movie, is seen clearly so that it can fall away, giving you a taste of your True Nature. And this taste gives you something truly beautiful: tremendous peace, tremendous love. Love in the sense of oneness with all. So by meditating regularly over some longer time, certainly some years, you will often fall into a deep silence, deep peace. Once you become an experienced meditator, then you will actually often come into this peace. And of course when that starts happening it then becomes very attractive to meditate.
When we sit quietly, John David encourages us to simply accept everything that’s there. If some strong thought, emotion of body sensation is present we can use that as a possibility to accept. When we come into an attitude of acceptance we are encouraged to let ourselves fall deeper inside. This is not a doing, more a letting go and returning into what has always been present.
Vipassana Island Weekend
John David regularly offers a meditation weekend which is all about silence. We come together, alone, and go on a journey inwards…
Vipassana Island is a great opportunity to understand how your mind and body are operating and to meet yourself in a deep way. Spend a whole weekend with yourself, sitting in silence in the supportive energy of a meditating group and the presence of John David. He has been guiding people into their own essence and love for 25 years.
Your Vipassana island consists of a chair, meditation cushion, back jack, matress and blanket. A loving helper team will bring food and take care of all needs.
A whole weekend for yourself. On Friday we start with dinner in silence and Satsang with John David. Afterwards 48 hours of Meditation beginn – on your Vipassana Island – in the supportive energy field of other meditators and the presence of John David.
On Sunday afternoon we come together for the opportunity to share, or to simply speak silence.
What people shared about their experience:
Upcoming Vipassana Island Weekend:
23. - 25. October at Open Sky House Hitdorf, Germany
6. - 8. November at Open Sky Villa Denia, Spain
