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Originally Posted by Joe Mc
What your saying seems obvious in a way but it far from so. Thanks for the insight, this is what i meant by alignment, aligning with life and letting it express itself in wholesome and friendly things and environments, as in feng shui. I lived in a fast moving and big City and it was difficult to keep up at times. Then just before i returned to Ireland I had an interview with Chime Rinpoche who was David Bowie's teacher at one time and I said i was thinking of leaving the 'Big Smoke' but i also said to him, (There's a Starman waiting in the sky lol, only joking of course),I can meditate easily in the city, its my cave, and he said no it's not easy. But on the other hand, you have that thing that the teacher Alan Watts said, " if you can't meditate in a boiler room you can't meditate.." So both these views seem contradictory in a sense ? What do you think ?
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Jo Mc - Chime Rinpoche was saying it’s not easy to mediate among distractions such as city noise. I think that’s true that it’s not easy, but not impossible. If you have learned the skill of drowning out noise in order to concentrate on your breath, thoughts, meditation music or what have you then what Alan Watts said is true.
I think of a boiler room being loud and uncomfortably hot and yet if you can’t meditate in there, than I suppose the sentiment is one is not doing it well.
I used to live in a very crowded city neighborhood not far from busy cross streets and a nearby expressway. I found it very difficult to meditate among the neighborhood noise, construction noise and road noise around me. But then again, I’m not very skilled at meditation and I admit that. I would always put on headphones and listen to guided meditation music. After a while I would think I was ready to take the headphones off and just observe my breath and tune out all the outside distractions, but I couldn’t.
So I guess my comment was derived from personal experience and if you are able to meditate in a big city, you’ve indeed mastered meditation!
