MEDITATION
Beyond his professional interests, Ng Kok Song has built a reputation as a teacher of meditation. He has been invited by many companies and organisations to share his knowledge on how the practice can help leaders reduce stress and improve mental health.
FRONT (L to R) Master Huan Xin Cheng, Ashvin Desai, Father Laurence Freeman OSB, His Excellency President Tony Tan Keng Yam, His Grace Archbishop Nicholas Chai, Mother Mangalam, Venerable Chuan Guan
Back (L to R) Ng Kok Song, Theresa Seow, Master Chung Kwang Tong, Habib Syed Hassan Al-Attas, Sister Maria Lau, James Loh, Patrick Prakash
In 2012, Ng Kok Song organised Common Ground, a two-day event where leaders across different religious faiths participated in sharing on meditation. This event was made possible through Ng Kok Song’s immense work, with the aim to foster the contemplative practice of each religion as a way to deepen inter-religious dialogue and friendship.
“The shared experience of silence has the power to unite with a deeper level of understanding while respecting the diversity of beliefs and practices. Through meditation prayer is gradually rediscovered as being concerned with changing the one who prays rather than a magical attempt to change the external reality of the laws of physics. Although nothing seems to happen during the meditation period, a process of radical change is initiated that pervades our whole life and inner being,” recalls Ng Kok Song.
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Ng Kok Song even taught meditation to the late Mr Lee Kuan Yew, who continued to practise it throughout his life.
Mr. Lee Kuan Yew, Fr. Laurence Freeman and ng Kok Song meditating in 2015.
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(Source: The World Community for Christian Meditation)
An extract from Lee Kuan Yew's interview with Seth Mydans from New York Times
on 1 September 2010
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“I started [practising meditation] about two, three years ago. I knew Ng Kok Song, the Chief Investment Officer of the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC), was doing meditation. His wife had died, but he was completely serene.
So, I said, how do you achieve this? He said, I meditate every day and so did my wife, and when she was dying of cancer, she was totally serene because she meditated every day. He gave me a video of her in her last few weeks, completely composed, completely relaxed, and she and him had been meditating for years.
You must be disciplined. I find it helps me go to sleep after that. A certain tranquillity settles over you. The day’s pressures and worries are pushed out.Then there’s less problem sleeping. I miss it sometimes when I am tired, or have gone out to dinner and had wine. Then I cannot concentrate. Otherwise, I stick to it.”
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