Plenary, 04 Dec 2002

Meeting date: Wednesday, December 4, 2002

Official Report 382KB pdf

---

Time for Reflection

The leader of today's time for reflection is Mr Rawdon Goodier, who is a Zen Buddhist lay minister and who recently retired as the first chairman of the Scottish Inter Faith Council.

Good afternoon. "Reflection" is an interesting word that has several meanings, one of which features in the name of the type of meditation that I practise within the Soto Zen school of Buddhism—serene reflection meditation.

What do we do when we reflect? From my experience, I suggest that most of the time we are constructing rather than reflecting. We are not seeking to reflect clearly the nature of the reality that confronts us, as in a clouded mirror; we are building trains, or perhaps chains, of thought, ideas and theories.

There are many situations in our daily life that require such activity of the intellect. However, the need to engage in it can become tyrannical—we can become enchained by persuading ourselves that, indeed, we have no "time for reflection". In doing so, we lose the ability to listen, not just to what other people say, but to the unspoken language of our hearts.

Many people seem to recognise intuitively that the loss of time for reflection represents a diminishment of our humanity. They sense that there is something wrong with a life of frenetic activity from which the only relief is the distraction of entertainment. That recognition is leading many people to explore the practice of meditation.

Although the cultivation of meditation is not a monopoly of the Buddhist faith, in one form or another, it is central to Buddhism, as it is the practice by which the Buddha Shakyamuni gained his insight into the nature of human existence. Although meditation is not essentially part of a package that necessitates adherence to specific religious beliefs, its practice leads to recognition of the need for ethical living and to faith in the intrinsic value of the practice itself.

Some time ago, I was shown an obscure 1692 quote in the large "Oxford English Dictionary", which exemplified one use of the word "reflection":

"the light of the moon reflected on frozen snow".

That description immediately brought back memories of my mountaineering years—of early starts across alpine glaciers or of late descents from Scottish hills. The words also resonate with the symbolism of much Zen poetry, in that they suggest, among other things, a place of stillness, but not of stagnation; a place of calm but bright anticipation from which we can step into the complexity of daily life and to which we can return at the end of the day—a place for reflection.