When the call of meditation whispers

I recently received a lovely big parcel of new books ordered from Amazon.com (great online shopping experience) which were returned to Australia by a family member (thus removing the hefty charges for shipping). As usual I purchased a little too many books .. perhaps .. but I love books and I love now looking at my bookshelf and seeing the new jackets all lined up, on a shelf put aside just for the new and inspiring.

Last night I had some time to indulge so I picked up this special book "Moving Inward .. the journey to meditation" by Rolf Sovik. I have read many of Rolf's articles from Yoga International magazine and the Himalayan Institute website. This is a book I have wanted to read for some time and when the opportunity came to purchase from the States this was high on the wanted list..

Just the book cover itself is inspiring to me... this is a really beautiful picture and I find it quite moving just gazing at the cover.

I was truly inspired by the very first words that I read in the quiet of last night. The first chapter 'The Spirit of Meditation' is one of the most beautiful passages that I have read about meditation, about a practice that is often so personal an experience, and so difficult to put into words ... such beauty ... poetry..

"At its core, meditation is a blossoming of spirit - an individual reply to a call from within. Unlike the more familiar ways in which we normally think and act, meditation asks us to take a seat and quiet ourselves. Then it whispers to us about how to be creative in life, about what is true and not true, about how to heal and how to mourn, and about the joys that come from simply being, rather than wanting and trying. All this amounts to a welling up of spirit that permeates both heart and mind"

... "If we are fortunate, whatever brought us to meditate will prompt something greater to emerge. It will blossom into a state of mind that cannot be contained in words. That bountiful fullness of consciousness is the fruit of meditation. It is the reason that our hearts persist in practice. It is the all-knowing into which we surrender our modest knowing. In its paradoxical way, when the call of meditation whispers, it does it with sounds that return us both to fullness and to silence"

Something to meditate on today.