Wednesday 27 July 2016

Meditating with the grandchildren

2 girls, 5 dogs, rainy walking
They are here again, 2 small girls for 10 days, full of fun and movement and at the end of a busy year of school and Singapore and travel.
Meditating at the start of the day is a bit tricky so I decide to wait until we have walked the dogs and had breakfast and got the day underway and then I say..."Look girls, I haven't had a chance to meditate yet and I wonder if you would let me out to my meditation space now to have a little quiet time?"
"Why do you meditate?" they ask.   I just say that "when I go to my meditation hut and meditate, I leave all my worries behind. Would they like to come too? Would they like me to show them how to do it?"
Oh yes they would! So, that is that! No long meditation for me but perhaps a chance for them to find a space where the hurly burly busyness of everyday can be left behind for a bit.
In the hut there is the bric-a-brac Buddha who presides over the summer house. He came from a jumble sale and is rather fine. I introduce him to the girls, they have seen many Buddhas in Cambodia and Vietnam which is close to where they live and they say, they know about meditation, all about meditation. Well, I say, let's try mine. So we do!
"The Buddha is telling us about being still" I say, "he is all about stillness and he is telling us that we have a stillness in us too and this is how we find it: we shut our eyes and put our hands on our knees so that our eyes and hands stop moving. And then we listen, we listen for the smallest sounds there are, first, the birds, then further to the murmur of cars on the faraway road. Can you hear them? and can you use your hearing to listen right out beyond the stars and moon and right to the place where the moon is hanging? I tell them THE word which Father Laurence uses and they stay quite still for at least 2 minutes. They said they liked it and we talked about finding a place where you can put your worries away or just give them to the bric-a-brac buddha.

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