The Lost Art of Meditation

 

The Lost Art of Meditation represents the essence and fruit of authentice yoga practice. Meditation is not so much a technique or a method: it is an awarenesss state. Not an obscure, esoteric or inaccessible state of consciousness, but the natural, fundamental expression of awareness undisturbed in the human organism.

Mental activity is necessary to being human. Yet so much mental activity is unecessary. Mind is liek a muscle in chronic activation. Trying to force, persuade or trick the mind to stop is self defeating. If left fully to itself it will soon slow down and reveal natural pockets of silence. The delight and satisfaction that these natural moments of silence provide draw the mind naturally back to them. In this way the mind naturally learns to settle into istelf and rest when it is not really needed.

The lost art of meditation is a process of becoming intimate with mind: both its activity and its nature. This intimacy is cultivted through simple, natural lenses such as the flow of sensation or the rhythm of breathing. When these lenses are applied with consistent precison they invite the mind to settle more deeply and consistently into its natural silence: even during daily life. This only happens when they are used to focus a genuine enquiry into that which is actually happening.

includes one morning self practice session ending in meditation, a further 5/6 hours of meditation, karma yoga, one talk and question/answer each day. Ongoing group and individual instruction and guidance is provided. The instruction given connects meditation directly to yoga posture practice, using pranayama (as cultivating intimacy with breathing) as a link. Instruction is based directly on Patanjali, treating meditation as an open enquiry into that which is actually happening, rather than a means to impose some special state or reach a predetermined goal. Jnanayoga sessions of Radical Enquiry may be included as a means to relinquish limiting beliefs and assumptions. This course is open to anyone: there are no prerequisites. Those who do not wish to participate in the yoga self practice will be instructed in walking meditation, or some other physical practice to be done as a substitute.