Good Weekend: To calm down, shut up: a multitasker's meditation breakthrough
A 10-day Vipassana retreat offers a way to turn down the volume on modern life. But first, boredom, tiredness, sweat and the fires of hell must be endured – with equanimity.
There was a moment, sitting at the desk in my Sydney home-office on a Sunday afternoon, with my boss texting notes for the news release due out first thing Monday morning, my kids fighting over the TV remote, and my partner feeling increasingly distant, when I felt overwhelmed by the noise. Not just the assault on my eardrums, although there was plenty of that, but the overwhelming and unending clamour for attention. All I wanted was peace. And quiet.
Remember that? What happened to “quiet”? Who turned up the volume in modern life – and why does it feel almost impossible to turn it down?