A glimmer of hope

Picture "Buddha Bridge" kindly provided by h.koppdelaney

What strikes me today, is the amount of distilled knowledge available on meditation, in plain simple English, really good clear explanations, crisp and practical advice.  I don't feel personally that this is substitute for good teachers and company, but it sure does help!

For example a long time I did not know the difference between awareness and thinking.  I found the following piece of writing really interesting from "Meditation An In Depth Guide":

Awareness is silent, whereas thinking creates a commentary in words and pictures.

Awareness is receptive and formless, whereas thinking is active, and has form in words and pictures

Awareness is always in the present. We can only imagine the future because it does not exist, it has not arrived yet. Thinking via the use of memory and imagination, projects into the future or past.  The bird sings a sweet note, and then the thinking mind says, "Sweet birdsong", but the note is already gone.

Awareness is still and unchanging; it is the same now as it was five minutes ago and five years ago. Thinking, by contrasts always changing (like all the contents of awareness)

Awareness, being silent, is also by its nature accepting and nonjudgmental. Again thinking labels, interprets and evaluates.  Thinking is frequently judgement; it struggles to understand, solve, improve or fix things. Awareness is the capacity to simply observe what is in this current moment.

Not too long ago, all of this knowledge was locked up in the minds of yogis, meditation masters...Not that they did not want to share it, it was probably that they could only do so in their own culture, in their own language...People from the west flew to the east to gain access to these teachings.

What we are seeing is a merging of minds, through technology the world is no longer a segregated place...Through social media, one can gain insights that effect real change...

A glimmer of hope appears for the world at large to change for the better...through grace many teachers are emerging, like phoenixes rising from the ashes...