A small group of perhaps 10 or 30 people come together to spend some days in silent meditation. It is not important which gender, ethnicity or religion they might identify with; all are welcome. Old age or physical disability is not a hindrance. This meditation is open for everyone.
Sitting silently in a hall, breathing, sensing the body, seeing the light reflected from the floor, being in touch with the people around. Who or what are we to be? Nobody special? Can it be enough to flow with the stream of aliveness, which is here in utter simplicity, no separation, no wanting, no missing?
When no separating thoughts or feelings appear, everything is complete as it is.
How do we live our everyday lives? Is there space to open up, to become aware? Are we truly in touch with what surrounds us or what is inside of us? Honestly, our lives are crowded with constant thoughts, actions and reactions. We are often overwhelmed and we switch to ’autopilot’ to get through the daily challenges. Are we victims of our automated programs? Is it inevitable to live most of the time in chaos, feeling helplessly exposed to a world that offers not even a moment to contemplate?
The central expression of this book is awareness. Awareness is a state of being present in the actual moment, being here in the actual truth that unfolds directly in front of our eyes. Everything is already complete here. Can we simply sense it, feel it – without judgment, without knowledge or explanation? No need to identify with anything. What drives us? The impulses to act, are we aware of them?
A new understanding of all life and nature, including us, may dawn from such simple silent awareness. Not a new concept of the world or of who we are. Concepts are part of the observed. Awareness is an understanding emerging from the truth of this moment.
Om författaren
Stephan has been doing meditation work and holding retreats in both German and English since 2003.
He started working with Toni Packer in 1983, regularly taking part in her retreats in Germany and in the United States. Towards the end of 1990, Toni asked him to offer private meetings with participants during her retreats in Germany. In 2003, she asked that he lead retreats in Poland and in Germany; and since that time, he has been holding retreats regularly in German and in English. He has helped to found two meditation groups. Interested people may join the regular meetings of these groups live or online, which bring together people in Germany and abroad.
Beginning in 1983, when Stephan first visited Springwater Center in the USA, he has come almost every year to participate in a retreat. In 2010, he began holding retreats at Springwater and comes back whenever his time allows it. ’I was most fortunate to have been able to work closely with Toni Packer for so many years. I seek to share with others the experience and insights of those years of meditation work, in retreat and in the meditation groups.’
Stephan lives in northern Germany, near the city of Hamburg. In his daily life, he is an engineer. For him, it is of utter importance that professional life and meditative life can unfold together in harmony.
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