Silent Meditation

by Sarah
(Plymouth)

I was on a two day Silent Zen Meditation retreat a few years ago.

The rules were that we were supposed to remain silent during the entire two days in order to gain a true meditation experience.

After about a day of silence, I was really itching to talk to somebody. We were sent on about a two hour working meditation where we cleaned out our cabins in silent meditation. Of course, I saw this as my chance to chat about how hard silence was!

The other women in cabin were on the same page and we chatted during the hour. However, as we were leaving the cabin to join the others for more seated meditation, I forgot that the others were still silent and shouted out something. This wouldn't have been so bad, except for the fact that we were on a mountain and it echoed and everyone in the vicinity turned and looked at me!

I had to laugh it off because no one could even talk to tell me to be quiet. Needless to say, I meditated on that one for the rest of the trip! :) Sarah