His roomate was lying on the bed, staring blankly at the ceiling. Ryan Paugh and his roomate hadn't spoken to each other for almost 8 days but not because they were fighting. They were meditating! When he first arrived in Myanmar in 2013, the only thing he knew about Vipassana Meditation was the word is spelled with two 'S' and it lasted for 10 days. There was no interaction with other people (not even an eye contact!) and the world (no music etc.). There were 120 of them sitting in the same meditation hall but in reality, they were all alone. 

"As the days turned I felt as if I was slowly sinking down through the depths of the ocean like a scuba diver. No movement, just observation, until eventually all my thoughts gave way to total darkness and boom, my feet landed on the bottom of the ocean.

Whoa, I remember thinking. I’ve never been here before. What is this place?

It was there, at the bottom of the ocean, where I’d spend the next several days running a mental and spiritual marathon."

Here's what he learned from the meditation period:

1. When you turn down the external volume, you can start to hear the internal 

Ryan Paugh has been working in a "boiler room" setting in the recruitment industry for 4 years in Tokyo and his head was full of noises. It wasn't the noise from his workplace, the society or the news. It was his own voice. He had completely drowned it out but through meditation, he managed to engage the conversation with himself. He realized it was the start of a new relationship. Now, it is the internal voice he turned to when he needed guidance. He called it "internal navigation system" and we all are actually equipped with it!

2. I am the root cause of all my suffering

It is something that we all sometimes forget. We can't control what happens in our life but we do have the power to control our reaction to it. It wasn't about something or someone that cause our frustration but it was our own response to it. It is easy to play victim in our life. We often feel like it was because of what he did, what she said, or how bad the traffic is. The cause of our suffering is obviously out there, isn't it? NO. The answer is here, within ourselves. 

"The silver lining was that if I was the root cause then it would follow that I could be the root solution."

He began the process of reconfiguring his internal software so he could practice to choose the response to whatever happens in life. To remind himself about it, he had "the power to choose" tattooed in small fonts on his chest!

3. Everything is temporary

Through out the Vipassana Meditation, another important value that he learned is OBSERVE. When he zoomed in into his life, he noticed work, relationships, health and other parts of his life probably weaken, strengthen or evolve. But one thing for sure, they don't stand still. There is nothing to cling to. Every single day is a new day. Every moment is a new moment.

4. Stillness facilitates insights

"When I'm driving 50km/h and I look out the window, the view is a bit blurry. When I'm driving 100km/h, the view is extremely blurry.

But when I stop at a red light and look out the window, things are clear. 

This is what I like to call "the physics of insight.""

If we want to see things clearly in life, we need to slow down. If we move faster, life would become more blurry. With our current lifestyle, we are constantly moving and connected with external stimuli. We are rarely still. But silence allows us to reflect, gain insight and check in with our internal guidance.

"Invitation to dinner? Sorry, I've got a date with silence."

Source: Ryan Paugh