Meditate Here Now

[Kristopher]

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Ngak’chang Rinpoche: The best place for practice has to be wherever you live, otherwise the path we’re discussing would merely be a cultural manifestation. The practice of sitting is transcultural—it deals with the human condition in all its diversity. The tall pointed hats with long earflaps worn by Lamas represent the retreat cave. The meaning of this is that your retreat is wherever you are. In the noisiest place imaginable—there is silence. Sound manifests within silent space, and the function of practice is to discover silent mind. When mind is silent, there is endless silent space in which sounds sing infinitely separate songs.

Khandro Déchen: Even if you were to find yourself a retreat cave high in the Himalayas, or sit in a soundproof room, you’d start to hear the sounds of your own body. There’d be fluids gurgling. There’d be the sound of your breathing and the background of your ears. These sounds would eventually distract and disturb you as much as any other sounds. You’d be disturbed by this simply because you’d never come to terms with the dissonance of your own subconscious noise. Body sounds would seem as offensive as the din of London traffic. People often say that they’d like to meditate but there never seems to be enough peace and quiet. They say, “If only I could go and live in the country, I’d be able to settle into a meditative lifestyle.” I’m sorry to say that this is just another fanciful idea. The countryside is as full of distracting noises as anywhere else. The sound of a pneumatic drill in the street below your bedroom window or the sound of several thousand crickets—which would be more distracting? Sure, the crickets aren’t there all year round, but then neither is the pneumatic drill.

Ngak’chang Rinpoche: I gave a course once at a Buddhist center, and the most profound meditative experience anyone had was when a road resurfacing machine passed by below. I heard it coming, and just as it started to annoy the people sitting, I said, “Just find the presence of your awareness in the dimension of the sound.” And they did. It was a wonderful sound. The sound of rooks roosting can be very intrusive—much more so than the hum of distant traffic. The “natural world” has romantic associations for you, but ultimately it comes down to concept—it’s a matter of your attraction, aversion, and indifference to what these various sounds represent rather than to the energy of the sound itself. To imagine that a peaceful place makes meditation easier is ultimately nonsensical.

Questioner: So you’d be better off accepting whatever situation you find yourself in.

NR: Exactly. Wherever you are is exactly where you are, and where can you be apart from where you are?

[Kristopher]

Wherever you are is exactly where you are, and where can you be apart from where you are?