The Quiet

I’ve recently finished Paul Wilson’s book The Quiet, which is about meditation. This book is different to other books on meditation that I’ve read in that it gives advice for most forms of meditation. So if you already have a meditation method (which I have) you can use his instruction to deepen rather than change your practice.

Wilson divides meditation into three different types:

1. Deep – which is meditation based on concentration on one thing. This encompasses techniques such as mantra repetition, candle gazing, breath counting. Often during these practices, the meditator tries to silence the mind.
2. Directed – which is meditation based on dialogue, i.e. the thoughts aren’t silenced but directed. This includes the Christian contemplative tradition, yoga nidra, New Age guided meditations, and Buddhism’s loving kindness (metta bhavana) meditations.
3. Aware – which is meditation based on concentration on many things. Vipassana meditation is the main form of awareness meditation. During vipassana you pay attention to every part of your being: your body, your emotions and your thoughts.

Wilson gives a technique which meditators can use whatever their meditation practice. This he calls Centre, Widen, Listen.

1. Centre is becoming grounded in your practice before you start. This comprises:  exhaling, paying attention to where your body touches the flour, and making sure the spine is straight.
2. Widen is expanding the vision so you see things around you, not just in front of you. This, he says, creates a feeling of relaxation and aids concentration. it induces an alternative, more intuitive state as it is different to the focussed state eyes are normally in in everyday life.  Eye softening (when you don’t focus the eyes) can also be used.
3. Listen is listening to the sound of the breath, particularly the outflow. This helps to stop internal chatter because we tend to talk, even internally, on the outbreath, and if we’re listening we can’t be talking.