FOREWORD TO THE SECOND EDITION
After years of meditating with various groups, I collected a number of self-written meditations. I noticed that many people needed such inviting words and images to open their own silence as windows to their inner world. So I decided to bundle the meditations, usable for both groups as well as for each individual.
The book became a success, so that it has now come to a second edition.
This clearly shows that more and more people are starting to understand the language of their inner self, beyond thinking, and that more and more people feel the need to find their own strength in silence.
Why are words needed to enter the silence? Surely the silence speaks for itself? Surely the silence is not helped by words or phrases?
That would certainly be the case if we were already aware of a natural inner silence in our daily life. But people are full of surface noise inside, full of clutter and concoctions, full of restless fragments of sentences, words, images, emotions and associative thoughts. One will never be able to hear the silence like this. That is why we are so restless and often dissatisfied with ourselves. That is why we crave to expose our true nature under the busy inner dialogues. We intuitively feel that deep inside a real spirit power is hidden. How do we reach it?
Silence is a layer of depth that wants to be addressed in a very subtle way, as an archaeologist who, with the most delicate of instruments, carefully uncovers his deeply hidden treasure. Words and physical images help us to enter in the silent free dimension, where thought is no longer lord and master.
But once the silence is reached, words are no longer necessary. For example, Leo Vromans writes in his poem god and goddess: “It is a beautiful poem, if one thinks away the words.” But the poem must first to be read.
It should be clear that this booklet is not intended to explain meditation as a technique or as a scientific phenomenon. In that sense, enough has already been written about meditation.
This booklet is very corporeal because it wants to touch the innermost and intimate part of us directly.
Each meditation is a completed unit and stands on his own. When you read a text again, it always touches you as new because the words are connected with an unspeakable eternity. And a vivid sense of eternity is always new. Therefore, read the meditations with the heart and let them absorb into your body.
Ultimately, all meditations lead you to the one: the true nature of the empty self is the source of life. Real happiness is finally found.