True Stillness is not the absence of noise...

One of the many obstacles to Meditation concocted by our mind is the idea that we can’t meditate if we are in a noisy environment. We think of noise as a distraction to Meditation and an interruption of our attempts at concentration. Sometimes our mind will even use the noise it perceives as an excuse not to meditate...

When we are overwhelmed by stimulation, agitation and sounds, we tend to crave stillness as a means to recover our inner calm. We believe that if the surroundings were less chaotic, we would more easily find our balance again. That is where our mind and senses are playing tricks on us. We believe that stillness will be there when the turbulences have subsided. In reality, we can be in a place where there are no sounds at all and yet we find no peace. We can sit in the most majestic and silent mountain setting, but if our mind is agitated, then the jumble of our thoughts can create more noise than a jackhammer outside our home.

Stillness has in fact nothing to do with the presence or absence of noise. Stillness is a dimension of being that is beyond the mind’s agitation and the noise of the world. Stillness is the fabric of the Source out of which sound appears in the first place. In other words: before sound comes into existence, before thought or form come into existence, the Space of Stillness is there. It is unchanging and ever-present, always at the back of everything we are and experience as human beings.

So we don’t have to control our environment, or create a sound vacuum to experience true Stillness. All we need to do is close our eyes and watch. At first we will perceive all the sounds around us and all the thoughts in our head. Instead of analysing them, commenting on them or lamenting their presence, we can tune in to that in us which is capable of perceiving both sounds and thought. When we develop the ability to stay established as that free Watcher, we realise that the sounds and thoughts come and go within the space of Stillness - as we watch them appear and disappear, the Stillness at the back of the movement remains unchanged, unaffected and uninvolved.

This is the Stillness we are longing for. We just have been looking for it in the wrong place. We have tried to tame our surroundings into Stillness, when it has been living inside of us all along. All we need to do is recognise it, tune in to it and cultivate it, so that we can remember and know its presence at all times.

Are you looking for guidance to remember the Stillness in you? E-mail Sampriya for a free half hour consult of Online Meditation Mentoring to find out how she can help you. More information can be found on our website regarding Meditation Mentoring, Online Meditation Classes or Online Satsang.

#meditation #onlinemeditationtraining #onlinemeditationmentoring #sampriyameditation #meditationmentor

Let's make 2019 the Year of Meditation

Meditation develops an extraordinary power: the ability to know, in our own being, that we truly are Divine Beings having a human experience.

In Meditation we reconnect with our innermost Being, our own Divinity. It is how we can know ourselves as whole. Struggle, doubt and the sense of not being enough can't reach there. Immersed in the space of Meditation we know that our innate state of being is Freedom. In that state we are free from feeling small, free from old conditionings, free from limiting mental and emotional beliefs, and free from fear or suffering. As That, we know that we are the eternally pure and free being we have been seeking for all our lives.

That's what Meditation is all about: unfolding the power and knowledge that lets us live this human experience in the knowledge of our True Nature.

You may think that this sounds like a lofty theory. It is the exact opposite. When we listen to those who have walked this path before us and take the time to sit with our eyes closed, we have a chance to experience the power of Meditation in our own Self. Beyond the chatter of our minds we will find our very Source, a space so vast and powerful that it has the capacity to transform the understanding of who we are.

As you can see, Meditation is much more than a technique to reduce stress or improve wellness. It is the key to inner peace, happiness and contentment - and it is available to anyone who wants to explore its true power.

So let's make this the Year of Meditation!

I can help you find your way with Meditation. Send me an e-mail for a free half hour consultation where you can check out private Online Meditation Mentoring - or contact a few of your friends and set up a small group class for an Introduction to Meditation. Check our website in the next few weeks for an upcoming half-day virtual Meditation Retreat and sign-up for the free blog and newsletter to stay tuned about other exciting projects coming later this year. For immediate access to the space of Meditation, you can always listen to the FREE guided Meditation by Sampriya here.

#meditationmentor #onlinemeditationtraining #onlinemeditationmentoring #onlinemeditationteachertraining

Meditation uncovers the Secret of who we really are

What if everything we have been told and believed about ourselves were inaccurate or, at the very the least, incomplete?

Many seekers have an innate sense that there is more to them than what they can see in the mirror. Their path often leads them to read the ever more popular classical texts like the Patanjali's Yoga Sûtras or the Bhagavad Gîta, only to find that they are not easy to understand without guidance.

There is a very good reason why the ancient yogic texts seem so hermetic at first. They were written by sages and saints who knew the Secret of the True Nature of all beings. They knew and lived a state of consciousness that is beyond the human waking state, and from that vast perspective, they described the Secret of Life. Throughout the ages, these rare Beings of Light appeared on earth to share their Knowledge with those who are willing to listen and accept a truth different from what society is telling them. These teachers and gurus help their students in developing the ability to uncover the Secret of their own True Nature through studying in their company and through the repetition of specific practices.

The most important and transformative of these practices is Meditation. In recent years Meditation has become a mainstream buzzword for everything from stress management to thinking that we can manifest the Ferrari of our dreams if we put our minds to it. As helpful or intriguing that some of these offshoots of Meditation may be, they miss the essence and aim of Meditation: to reveal our True Nature, our Divine Essence to us.

Neither family nor educational institutions or society tell us that we are Divine Beings in essence. All our lives we are told that we are mortal human beings. We are told our body is our finite identity, born at some time and destined to die eventually. In school we learn that intelligence is the mind's faculty to accumulate as much information as possible - and that the right information, gained through a good education, will give us access to riches and recognition, thus ensuring our happiness in life.

Eventually we find out that this type of happiness it fleeting at best. Most accept the ups and downs of life as the inevitable condition of being human. They either keep chasing the ideal of "more" or become sad and depressed because life is not what they were hoping for.

There is a third category of human beings. Those who have a strong inner yearning as well as the courage, curiosity and perseverance to keep looking for a deeper kind of knowledge. These are the rare ones who will seek information and guidance that can lead them beyond the confines of the human experience. They are the ones who will find their way to the Essence of Meditation: the secret knowledge of our True Nature that gets uncovered when we close our eyes - as it was transmitted by the sages.

In turning our attention inward, the storm of thoughts, judgments and opinions that rages in our heads is seen from the outside. As the one observing the turbulence, we realise that we are free from it. In fact we see that the Watcher or Knower of the storm has nothing to do with it and cannot be affected by it.

This in itself is a momentous shift in perception. Yet, it is only the first layer of the secret that the sages have been sharing. If we can observe the storm, it means that we truly are not the storm.... It also means that we are not limited to our physical body and our mind's thoughts - with which we have been identifying as "I" all through our lives. Our true "I" is much much vaster than this individual form that we call "my body or I".

We experience the truth of this fact when we remain sitting with our eyes closed for a while. As we keep watching, the storm of thoughts eventually settles; even the perception of having a body will slowly disappear. It may feel almost as if we were falling asleep, but with one significant difference: The Presence of the Watcher/Knower is still there. "I" still exists, but not as a finite, formed entity with an individual body and mind. The Knower "I" that remains is infinite, unchanging and forever the same everywhere. It is the Source of all creation and therefore the Source of every individual "I" that can never be separate from its Source. That is the Secret uncovered in Meditation: we may appear to be separate human beings, with individual minds, but our True Nature is the invisible, pure, free and forever Knower Self.

Meditating again and again on the Knower Self as our identity, the Secret of our True Nature gets uncovered and we know ourselves as the Divine Beings that we are.

If you are looking for help and guidance in uncovering your own True Nature, send me an e-mail to book a free half hour consultation to explore the ways in which I can help you.

#onlinemeditationtraining #onlinemeditationmentoring #meditationmentor #yogphilosophy #essenceofmeditation