What is meditation?
We all like to think we know who we are. Yet who is this person that I call ‘me’? We spend so much energy chasing after thoughts, sensations, desires, and emotions, holding onto an idea about who we think we are as we create and try to sustain a fixed sense of personality and identity at all costs. Yet sometimes, we experience moments when we drop into a deeper stream of awareness and witness our true nature of intuitive wisdom, clarity, peace and compassion.
This is the art of meditation; awakening mindfulness of what is and awareness of of the nature of mind. Sure, you still feel the imprint of anger, tension, fear, irritation flowing through you at times, fuelled by conditioned habits and behaviour. But you don’t become the living embodiment of these shifting thoughts, emotions and sensations, getting swept away in life’s drama. You can stand in the midst of life, catching hold of your awareness to hold you steady, clear, focused and responsive. Through simple Buddhist meditation techniques of breath awareness, Vipassana and Metta, the mind and heart open and you open up a wellspring of joy, peace and insight inside you.
Life is constantly changing around us. A meditation practice can help you to move and grow beyond the suffering, pain, fear, anger that come from clinging onto a fixed perception or idea about who you are, how you want your life to be, and the experience of what is. It is up to you to explore and embrace the true nature of your humanity, to understand the mind’s true nature so you can live your life’s true potential. To awaken mindfulness of what is – this is your birthright.
Dhamma and meditation group, meeting twice a month on a Monday – 6-7/7.30pm at my home near Marwood, 3 miles from Barnstaple. A friendly, welcoming and open-hearted group to sit and reflect together, looking inwards, to better understand how to live outwards, in our fast- changing world. Tea and cakes alongside to warm the soul.
Please contact Naomi for more information.
Run on a donations-only basis – please give freely to the World Land Trust Charity.