craving for silence
Spontaneously, after today’s shopping, I decide to go to the beach and meditate for the first time in a long while.
My feet carry me across the uneven light grey pebble beach, and I settle down a few meters from the roaring sea. Crossing my legs in a lotus position, I take a deep breath and set my timer for 1 hour.
I close my eyes and direct my entire focus to the lively waves crashing in front of me.
I hear stones colliding; someone is approaching.
I slightly open my left eye to see who it is.
A middle-aged man in a white T-shirt awkwardly approaches me.
It is clear to both of us that it is an inconvenient moment for a conversation, and I try to breathe away my rising annoyance about being disturbed.
‘Excuse me, please. I really want to learn this’, he says.
‘Meditating?’ - I look at him in surprise.
‘Yes, exactly. A friend from India showed me once. I miss the tranquility. How do you do this? Do you just stop thinking?'
'Well…’, I try to sum up years of experience in some short sentences. ‘It’s not that I don’t think anymore. On the contrary, I still think, sometimes quite a lot and loud. The trick is to just observe the thoughts and let them pass. You can choose a point of focus instead for example. Like the sound of the sea. And then, thoughts float around like background noise from the TV or radio. And every time I catch myself drifting in thought, I immediately bring myself back to the present and focus again on the sound of the sea.’
‘Ok..’, he needs some moment to let the words sink in.
‘Do you mind me joining you?’
‘Sure!’, I smile at him, suddenly feeling happy that someone would feel inspired to join.
‘But beware that I set the timer for 1h, you might want to leave earlier if you are not used to it.’
‘1h is too much.’, he laughs and sits down next to me. I quickly show him the arrangement of the legs into a simple lotus seat and then close my eyes.
The next time I open them, my alarm is ringing and the guy is gone.
What a random encounter.
I hope that he enjoyed his moment of meditation.
