“Active loving kindness”
Even a person who does not accept the major premises of the Buddhist faith will, if he follows instructions given at the centre faithfully, experience a deep and invigorating calm. A calm possibly deeper than anything he has previously experienced. The atmosphere of tolerance and active loving kindness that surrounds the visitor to the Centre does much to strengthen the appeal of the mental and spiritual discipline.
Elisabeth K Nottingham
Canada
“Meditation takes the edge off a hectic urban life”
The Meditation clearly has an effect, even on the fastest, most stressed mind. I feel wonderfully mellow at the end of the first evening. And as the week-end progresses, I begin to slow down without even trying. By Saturday night, I notice that I am taking more time to eat and brush my teeth. I have started walking, instead of running, up the stairs. I am more mindful of everything - my body, its movements the food I eat, the smell of the grass outside, the colour of the sky. By Sunday night, even the meditation itself is starting to seem within reach. My mind is learning to be quiet and still for longer. I feel less impatient and hurried. In fact, I am so relaxed I do not want to leave. Without my realizing it, my brain has also been engaged in some very useful Slow Thinking. By the end of the week-end, ideas for work are bursting up from my subconscious mind like fish jumping in a lake. Before returning to London, I sit in the car and scribble them down.
Is it possible to transfer that meditative calm from a retreat to the real world? The answer turns out to be a qualified yes… Meditation can take the edge off a hectic urban life.
After my stint at the Wiltshire retreat, I speak to a number of people to find out what meditating does for them. One is Neil Pavitt, a forty-one-year-old advertising copy-writer from Maidenhead. He started to attend retreats at IMC In the early 1990s. Meditation provides a bedrock of calm that helps him to negotiate the choppy, fast-moving waters of the advertising world. "If things get really busy or stressful at work, I'll just take five or ten minutes to be aware of the breath, and that will bring back the calm to my mind" Neil says.
Carl Honore' In Praise of Slow, pg 126ff
“Wish to leave suffering behind”
In vipassana meditation I first discovered that all the suffering such as worries, fears, anger, ill will and all this longing are impermanent. They come and go. This experience allowed me to come out from under their influence a little. Then I discovered that this very change is suffering. There is nothing in mind and body I could rely on. Because everything is changing. Mind and body are changing. This made the wish to leave all this behind come up in me. To escape from it all. I wonder whether it will be possible for me.
R. B.
Wiltshire
“I've noticed a clarity in my thinking”
It has been four years since I first came to the IMC UK. Since then I have been sitting one course each year. I wanted to write about how the experiencee here has helped me on a practical level in my day to day life.
When I first came here I used to suffer with severe irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). I had a long list of food I couldn't eat for fear of setting off an attack. Unfortunately I suffered an attack on the first day of the course.
I was shown much care and kindness by the kitchen staff here, who ensured that I was given whatever food and rest I needed. As a result I was able to sit the full course whithout too much discomfort. I haven't suffered an attack of IBS since that first course. In fact I can now eat whatever I want; that list of bad foods has long gone. I can't explain how or why this has happened.
This is my experience - this is how it is. And I attribute this to my meditation and to the staff who provided a safe environment for me to sit the course.
I work as a software engineer and the past two years have been particularly trying. We've had a major system to implement, and due to the stress of it all, we have had members of the team leaving or going off sick. This left me with a workload of 2 - 3 people with which I have coped very well.
Since coming here, I've noticed a clarity in my thinking. I often arrive at solutions faster than my colleagues. My programmes are always written quicker and in a simpler way than others. My manager's appraisal of me stated that I contributed to produce work of the highest quality under extreme pressure. Without a doubt, it is the mindfulness that I've learned and practised here that has enabled me to cope where others haven't.
How lucky I am to be in a place where unconditional kindness, patience, peace and teaching are in such great abundance. You help heal my body, clear my mind and help me find a little more peace each time I am here.
R.K.H.
Leicestershire
“I will be eternally gratefull”
For many many years I have lived in a state of unrest and unhappiness. There have been times when this has been unbearable and I was driven to dark places. I don't as yet know how the teachings and practice experienced during the past ten days will help me. What I do know is that this is the start of a long journey, but it is a start. I also know that I have some hope and for that I will be eternally grateful.
Michael L.
Kent