Too much thinking?

Have you ever been confronted by your own thoughts when they are travelling at absurd speed? This past Friday evening, running late for a talk, I was walking really fast and thinking really fast about everything that had happened during the week. And lots happened, both good and not so good, depending on how one sees it. In any case, this tsunami of thoughts was flooding my mind at incredible speed - and my steps were going in the same pace, as I was almost running through Covent Garden to arrive on time.

The moment I stepped into the hall, where people were seated immersed in a completely different atmosphere, it felt as if my thoughts had collided with a wall of quietness. Everyone was chilled out, in a good mood, and quite relaxed. More importantly, there was a "silent space" around, which highlighted to me the speed of my thinking. And, just as a giant wave eventually calms down, this silence started to ease my thinking, until my mind was finally almost still. They were meditating. And that meditation was like medication for my mind - suddenly there it was: my week, my many thoughts, now dissolved like a small spray absorbed by the sand.

love in action

It’s so special to see love in action. I love to witness the moments when people show their greatness in everyday life. I live in London, and the other day I was on the bus in the morning going to my meditation class. It was a cold morning in February, and an old man went to get on the bus, his bus pass didn’t work properly (it lets out an odd bleeping sound – which means you don’t have any money on the pass, it was bleeping and everyone could hear it). The bus driver tried to tell the old man that was hard of hearing that his pass didn’t work, the old man didn’t really get it but he knew something was wrong and so innocently and quietly went to get off the bus. My heart went out to the old man at that moment, seeing his frailty and vulnerability. The bus driver called him back, and said, it’s OK Come, come. It was only 6.20 in the morning and I’d already seen love and greatness in action. As I got off the bus, the friend that I was travelling with also noticed it and commented on the bus driver and his ability to discriminate, how he was so clear at that moment what was the right. It could sound a minor thing, but the reality is actions like this stand out like pure gold.