When your mind is quiet, you have an effect on the people around you. And often when people are sick or weak is when they pick up on it most. So when you’re sitting here meditating, the people around you benefit as well. You have a good influence on them.

"There’s a story in Ajaan Lee’s autobiography of a senior monk in Bangkok who was sick and so Ajaan Lee went to visit him. Now, this senior monk had very little use for the Wilderness Tradition, so it wasn’t the case that he had a lot of faith in Ajaan Lee. But Ajaan Lee just sat in one corner of the room and meditated. After a while the senior monk began to have a sense that something was coming from Ajaan Lee’s corner, having an effect on his body. So he asked Ajaan Lee, “What are you doing?” and Ajaan Lee said, “I’m making a gift of quiet, a gift of silence.” And the senior monk said, “Well, whatever it is, keep on doing it. It feels really good.” And so Ajaan Lee would go back every day to meditate in the senior monk’s room. After a while, they started talking, and he actually taught meditation to the senior monk, who had never meditated before. As a result, he changed the senior monk’s ideas about the Wilderness Tradition and about the possibility of getting results from meditation.

Now, Ajaan Lee’s powers of concentration were very strong. But the basic principle applies to us as well. When your mind is quiet, you have an effect on the people around you. And often when people are sick or weak is when they pick up on it most. So when you’re sitting here meditating, you’re not the only one who’s going to benefit. The people around you benefit as well. You have a good influence on them. Most people’s minds just wash around without any real fixed foundation. If they can sense a stable foundation nearby, even though it’s not inside them, they can pick up on that sense of stability. It’s calming to them, reassuring.

So that’s one way that your meditation can have an impact on others. You try to carry it into whatever situation you enter."

~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "A Gift of Stillness"

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