“There is nothing more important to true personal growth than the realization that you are not the voice in your head - you are the one who hears it.” ~ Michael Singer
What is Meditation?
"Meditation is a practice of discovering that there is already stillness." ~ Adyashanti
Why would you sit still on a chair or cushion and turn your attention inward? When I first started meditating, I was shocked by how chaotic I was and how uncomfortable and unpleasant my inner world was. Meditation is a process, a search and it takes a while to get beyond the chaos. It is like being in an airplane taking off and flying through dark clouds and suddenly seeing the sun and the clear sky.
No one can teach you to meditate. I can give you methods and pointers that are helpful to follow, but ultimately it is something you have to discover for yourself. 'Who am I' is the central question, and it is very liberating when you discover that you are not your feelings and thoughts.
Why Meditate?
First of all, we don’t meditate to be comfortable. This may come as a surprise, but meditation is not about feeling good, even though we often hope it is. If it were, most of us would think we were meditating wrong. The purpose of meditation is not to feel bad, but to develop an open, compassionate attention to whatever is happening.
A common image used to illustrate this is that of a big open sky, offering plenty of space for everything to come, stay, and go. This includes the good and comfortable as well as the difficult, painful and unwanted.
The essence of meditation is to train ourselves to do something quite radical and certainly not the habit of most people: to stay with ourselves, no matter what happens, without labeling it as good or bad, right or wrong, pure or impure.
Meditation is valuable if you can translate it into your daily life. It is about transformation, not about states of consciousness that can be experienced as an escape from your life. Meditation is a way to get to know yourself, to recognize the ground of your being.
Meditation is something you have to do
It is not an idea or a theology. It is not about concepts, but about a direct experience of your whole being.
Meditation holds up a mirror
You see yourself directly as you are, without words. You see where your mental and emotional state of being is. And so it takes time to master this, step by step. I go for a gentle approach. Don't try to force anything.
Creating a stable base
- The art of meditation is to experience the moment completely open and fresh. Maybe you have meditated or read about it; put that aside for a moment. Don't come as an expert; put the lens of the past aside. Try the childlike approach, really open.
- It is important to understand exactly what you are doing and why you are doing it. You don't want to just wander around and try to be still. That is why we are also looking at the method. To apply it and then find your own way.
- You can think of meditation as gathering energy, attention and focus. And the attention goes to consciousness. So if your life is a theater with consciousness as the spotlight, we are now looking at the spotlight itself. We are becoming aware of consciousness. So the light turns on itself.
What I Offer
Meditation & Mindfulness