Teach Us to Sit Still: A Sceptic's Search for Health and Healing

by Tim Parks

Coleman smiled. ‘So you lost the present for a future moment that didn’t even happen.’

I love the figure of Coleman, the overweight fragile guru who finally teaches Tim to sit still.

Simply eating had become an intense, slow pleasure, feeling a rough crust of bread on the roof of your mouth, a crisp carrot between your teeth, a forkful of rice melting in saliva on the tongue, slithering down the throat, then the cool cleanness of the water that washed it all away, the quiet sense of repletion. Sitting silently at table with the others was also an intense pleasure, watching their silent faces as they ate, watching their concentration. Breathing the evening air was beautiful.

Ah to be truly in the moment!

‘Always ask yourselves,’ guru Coleman said to us during one of his evening talks, ‘in what way am I contributing to my own suffering?

Good question, maybe?