It was only during my second ten-day silent retreat that I was introduced to the experience of meditating all alone in a tiny cell.
Each of these solitary cells at the retreat centre typically measures 5 feet by 5 feet - large enough for one person to sit on the ground and meditate, but too small for lying down or engaging in any activity with reasonable movement. The minimalist space features only one bare cushion and facilitates a quiet, distraction-free environment for focus and deepening our practice of meditation.
The strict meditation schedule at the retreat centre also comes with a host of rules to ensure we are spending most of our time meditating, rather than wasting precious moments in idle chat or other activities.
It took me some time to appreciate such a set up, and a little longer to learn that it was not the four walls and ceiling of the cell, nor the boundaries of the retreat centre, nor rules and regulations that confined me, but my very own mind.
Over the course of the retreat, I learned to observe how the mind is either reacting to every moment of an experience that I didn’t like, or craving for an experience that I didn’t have. Most of the time, I discovered, the mind was struggling and trying to run away from thoughts and emotions, to escape from pain and discomfort.
It seems counter-intuitive that sitting still in meditation would help free us from these struggles, but it does. When we meditate, we are fundamentally practicing for freedom - not freedom in the sense of having liberty to go anywhere we like or do whatever we want, but true freedom from the unwholesome patterns that hold us back from living with complete ease.
In this live Take A Pause session recorded on 21 July 2024, I guided the TAP community in a practice of freedom through body awareness. Not only did we practice observing physical sensations in the body, we learned to work with the pain and discomfort that showed up during meditation. In turning towards discomfort and observing feelings of intensity in the body with non-judgemental awareness, we were approaching our experience with non-reactivity, letting go of attachment, and cultivating equanimity in the mind.
At the end of the session, we contemplated freedom by mindfully tuning in to a reading from Yung Pueblo’s Inward.
Meditation begins: 07:55
Reading begins: 26:19
Meditation duration: 19 minutes
A couple more TAP episodes for you:
And a few reads for wiser living:
Share this post