Meditating at Google, Inc. (Silicon Valley)

Wisdom Quarterly; Noah Shachtman (Wired.com, June 18, 2013)

Mindfulness coach Chade-Meng Tan (wired.com)

Chade-Meng Tan [who once welcomed American monk Bhikkhu Bodhi to Google TechTalks] is perched on a chair, his lanky body folded into a half-lotus position.

 

“Close your eyes,” he says. His voice is a hypnotic baritone, slow and rhythmic, seductive and gentle.

 

“Allow your attention to rest on your breath: The in-breath, the out-breath, and the spaces in between.” 

 

We feel our lungs fill and release. As we focus on the smallest details of our respiration, other thoughts—of work, of family, of money—begin to recede, leaving us alone with the rise and fall of our chests.

 

California's Silicon Valley (sinolanguage)

For thousands of years, these techniques have helped put practitioners into meditative states. Today is no different. There’s a palpable silence in the room. For a moment, all is still.

 

I take another breath.

 

The quiet is broken a few minutes later, when Meng, as he is known, declares the exercise over. We blink, smile at one another, and look around our makeshift zendo—a long, fluorescent-lit presentation room on Google’s corporate campus in Silicon Valley. More