WHAT IS 'AWARENESS MEDITATION' AS PRACTISED AT NIRARTA?

Awareness Meditation, as taught by Peter offers a synthesis of basic meditation practices to faciltate personal well-being, development of mind, body, and emotions, and the unfolding of higher consciousness.

We practice Awareness Meditation twice a day at Nirarta, generally about 7.30 a.m. in the morning and about 5.30 or 6.00 p.m in the evening.

We begin with a few minutes of stretching and light movement to enliven and relax the body. 

We follow this by sitting for meditation and taking a few minutes of quiet breathing through alternate nostrils to balance mind and body and begin the natural process of slipping into meditation.

Our meditation takes about 30 minutes, of which the last five are generally devoted to Energy Meditation. 

• We begin with some minutes of 'Pulse Meditation', in which we attend to the natural rhythms occurring within our bodies and allow ourselves to settle into them, and for them to begin to subside into themselves.
  

• We follow this particular form of Mindfulness or Presence meditation, with some 20 minutes of meditation, whose cyclical structure, is inspired by the Balinese understanding of the natural rhythms of transformation. We use a simple cycle that involves taking a point of focus, allowing a moment of inwardness, letting the inwardness evolve into simple being, which allows expansion and release. From there the cycle begins again, taking us spiralling deeper into ourselves.

• To take a direction, we use a simple question, not as a vehicle for discursive thought, but to allow ourselves to enter into that natural contracting of awareness that occurs between question and answer, and before an answer springs to mind. Just as a question generally presupposes seeking an answer, so a statement, if it is true, simply acknowledges what is, allowing our awareness to expand. For this, we take a simple undeniable truth and drop it into our awareness, allowing the latter to expand as far as it goes, whether within the body or far beyond it. The more our awareness expands, the more our bodies too become vehicles of peace and simplicity. This means that subtle blocks to the free flow of energy in our bodies tend to open and release.

• We cycle through this process, which is easier to practise than describe, and finally complete our practice with a short period of Energy Meditation, in which we stimulate a slight tension in the body, and allow energy to begin to move in and through us. We welcome and receive this energy, letting it spread through our body. This helps to stimulate alignment and awakening.

To complete, our practice, we take some minutes of rest and relaxation, to allow the body to settle again, to integrate what we have experienced, and for the energy within us to flow smoothly and gently, so that we have a sense of enlivened awareness in our whole being.

The relaxation method we use can be practised at other times to reduce and release tension in the body. It can aid recovery from excessive exertion, and act as a bridge and support for sleep. Relaxation is complementary to the process of meditation. In the former, there is more emphasize on letting everything go, both body and mind. In the latter, there is more emphasis on the heightening of attention in the quietness - to enjoy a kind of restfulness with alertness.

For this new to meditation, we offer a formal five-lesson FOUNDATION COURSE in the first practice of Awareness Meditation. This course is normally offered over two days for a fee of 125$US per person. Visitors who already practise meditation, are welcome to join us at meditation times.

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MORE ABOUT MEDITATION

There are many kinds of meditation. Generally, their aim is to expand awareness, enhance mental clarity and focus, reduce stress, refresh the body, bring harmony to our relationships, and peace to our world.

Ultimately, the purpose of meditation is to open our awareness, first temporarily and eventually permanently, towards the realization of 'higher consciousness' or union with a transcendent or spiritual dimension of life.

But meditation is not a means of escape from this world. As our consciousness awakens, we become truly present to our experience in the here and now. We find that our minds and bodies function better. We enjoy more happiness in our daily life. We become more creative and enjoy better relationships with others. In bringing peace into our lives, meditation helps bring peace to our world. The practical benefits of meditation in daily life are many and immediate, while the long-term benefits of regular practice to the quality of life are enormous.

Although there are many kinds of meditation practice, they may be grouped into a few 'families' of method, according to how they influence mind-body functioning:

1. Mindfulness or presence meditation practices

These practices assume that we usually forget about the knower or even the process of knowing to lose ourselves in the various objects of experience. We live absent-mindedly, often barely conscious of what we are seeing, hearing, feeling or thinking. Mindfulness practices attempt to bring us to greater awareness by emphasizing simple attentiveness to what is actually happening in our awareness in the here and now.

2. Introvertive or contraction/absorption meditation practices

These practices assume that there is a transcendental ground to experience that is 'smaller than the smallest', in and beyond every atom of thought, feeling, and perception. They involve turning the attention within, directing it towards a chosen object of attention, which becomes increasingly present, but also increasingly subtle, until we pass beyond it to enter and rest in the simple expansiveness of pure awareness itself, beyond all thoughts and sensory objects of attention..

3. Extravertive or expansion meditation practices

These practices assume that everything we experience is always within our own consciousness, which as such is always 'larger than the largest'. These practices bring our attention to the ultimate container of knowledge, our own awareness beyond all the various contents of consciousness.

4. Energy meditation practices

Energy meditations assume that integrated functioning of mind and body depends upon the free flow of a subtle energy which connects the different parts of the body. When our subtle energy is able to flow freely, we are better able to maintain and enjoy awareness in our lives. We also enjoy great strength, power, and insight.

Energy practices stimulate and direct the flow of energy in the body. This may be a subtle process or it may become quite active. As energy moves in the body, it can encounter blocks or resistance, stimulating sometimes dramatic spontaneous movements and shifts in breathing. Afterwards we find ourselves more open in awareness and relaxed in body.

Such practice accelerates the ability of the body-mind to purify itself, enjoy better health, and to maintain higher consciousness.

Awareness Meditation, as practised at Nirarta, uses a mix of these four kinds of method.