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Initiator Training is a dynamic and transformative process designed to train practitioners of Vedic Meditation to be professional Initiators - teachers in our Vedic tradition.
The next Initiator Training course will be conducted by Limor Babai, Thom Knoles and Christian Bevacqua in Rishikesh, India from January 20th to April 14th, 2015.
This will be a full time 12 week residential program.
For further details and to complete the Application Form, please click here: www.vedicmeditationit.com
My colleague and Master Ayurvedic Chef Tim Mitchell will conduct a course on Ayurveda and cooking as follows:
Thursday 17th July, 6-9pm
Saturday 19th July, 1-5pm
Sunday 20th July, 1-5pm
The course will be held at The Intuitive Well in Bondi Junction and is suitable for everyone. You will learn the basic principles of Ayurveda (the science of longevity) and how you can bring balance to your mind and body through food. You will also enjoy feasting on Tim's delicious cooking.
This course is highly recommended for anyone who wishes to learn more about Ayurveda, Ayurvedic cooking and how to balance your body for optimal health.
For further details, please click here: Ayurveda and Cooking July 2014
A photo of the group of meditators who attended the recent Weekend Retreat in the beautiful Blue Mountains.
Participants learnt and practised 'Rounding'. 'Rounding' combines a simple sequence of yoga positions (asanas) and a Vedic breathing technique (pranayama) with meditation.
The depth and restfulness of meditation is multiplied exponentially as meditators extend the number of rounds through each day, from three to five to seven and beyond, diving deep into Nature and the Unified Field.
It was 3 days of deep rest, advanced knowledge, delicious food and fun.
Thank you to the highly conscious group who attended.
All Vedic Meditators are invited to attend the Advanced Course entitled Exploring the Veda.
The knowledge and tools you will learn on this course will fast track your growth to higher states of consciousness, transform your waking state experience and help you realise your life purpose.
The Exploring the Veda course is conducted in 6 instalments in a non-residential setting at the Double Bay Meditation Centre. Instalment 1 will take place as follows:
Friday July 25th, 2014 - 7pm to 9.30pm
Saturday July 26th, 2014 - 10am to 6.30pm
Sunday July 27th, 2014 - 10am to 6.30pm
For further details about the course, please click here: Exploring the Veda
I am conducting the life-changing Mastering the Siddhis Course, instalments 1 to 5 at my Centre in Double Bay, Sydney.
Thom Knoles will be conducting instalment 6 in Los Angeles, USA from August 29th to September 1st, 2014.
For further details about the course and to view the dates, please click here: Mastering the Siddhis
All Vedic Meditators are invited to attend this Long Weekend Retreat in the beautiful Blue Mountains from Thursday 22nd May (6.30pm) to Sunday 25th May (2pm).
During the Retreat, you will learn and practice 'Rounding'. ‘Rounding' combines a simple sequence of yoga positions (asanas) and a Vedic breathing technique (pranayama) with your current meditation practice. The result is an 'industrial-strength' program designed to enhance the restfulness of meditation, release your deepest stresses and expand your consciousness.
In addition to advancing both your meditation practice and waking state experience of life, you will come away from the Retreat feeling refreshed and revitalised for months to come.
For further details, please click here: Weekend Retreat
The final group meditation meeting for 2013 will be held at 6.30pm on Monday 16th December.
Come and join us for group meditation and Vedic knowledge.
We look forward to seeing you there.
The first group meditation meeting for 2014 will be held at 6.30pm on Monday 6th January.
However, there will be no group meditation meeting on the Australia Day Holiday; Monday 27th January.
You can always check our meeting schedule via the website: Double Bay Meditation Meeting Times
Wishing you all the very best over the festive season and a Happy New Year.
Thoughts are a part of meditation.
Having lots of thoughts during a meditation session is not an indication of incorrect meditation. In fact, thoughts are one of the symptoms of correct meditation.
Thoughts during meditation are caused by the body purifying itself of accumulated stress (overloads). This process of purification causes the mind to become more active which in turn leads to thoughts as the mind cannot be active without content.
In order to get a picture of what happens to a person’s body during meditation, scientific studies on meditators require them to wear so much invasive instrumentation and apparatus that no meditator being measured scientifically ever has had anything but a thought-filled meditation session.
Imagine wearing an electrocardiogram on your chest, 16 electrodes for EEG on your head, having a catheter inserted into your forearm artery, a gas mask over your nose and mouth, and a rectal thermometer taking your temperature, along with several other devices in place - all at once - and then being asked to meditate in the laboratory while knowing you were being measured.
Yet every scientific study published on the wonderful effects of meditation has asked the meditator to meditate under these or similar conditions. After each study, when interviewed, meditators confirm typically that the session was far more thought-filled than their most thought-filled home sessions. Yet it is these studies that demonstrate repeatedly beneficial physiological changes during meditation.
The lesson from this is that a meditator’s subjective assessment of the benefits of a meditation sitting is not an accurate tool for determining what is the full effect of a particular session.
Scientific studies ask the meditator for ten minutes both before and after the proper meditation-measuring phase of the study simply to sit with eyes closed and not use the mantra - to measure the difference between “sitting merely with eyes closed” versus that phase of the sitting during which the subject is “intending to meditate”.
The distinction between these two phases always is dramatic; the “intending-to-meditate” phase of sitting, however thought-filled, will show invariably powerful physiological changes - mostly those related to release of stress and of deep levels of rest, typically up to five times more restful than sleep.
When the body throws off stress during meditation, this causes the mind to march into thoughts and a feeling of buoyancy instead of diving. The benefits of that phase of a sitting (even if it is the nature of an entire sitting) are mostly deferred benefits; those being detected outside the practice. In other words, you will feel better for having done it, even if during it experiences are not as settled as in other sittings.
So continue to give meditation the priority it deserves in order to receive the wonderful benefits noticed by millions of people around the world.
With love,
Limor
Special Meeting for Vedic Meditators to be conducted by Thom Knoles
GURU PURNIMA - Monday July 22nd at 7pm
Venue: The Life Pod Yoga Studio; Level 1, 1A Victoria Street, Paddington
Celebrate Guru Purnima (the full moon in July) which traditionally honours the Vedic Masters who brought to light the Vedic knowledge we all enjoy today. Thom will perform “Puja” - the ceremony of gratitude that you witnessed when you learnt to meditate. It is part of the mythos of Guru Purnima that a boon is granted in response to a wish offered with one’s flower at the culmination of the Puja. It is an evening of stories, eating of rich sweets together, taking in a moonlit stroll, and enjoying the good fortune of being a meditator at the dawn of the age of enlightenment.
The evening will include group meditation.
Please bring a flower with you and a wish!
Free event. No RSVP required.
Initiator Training is a dynamic and transformative process designed to train practitioners of Vedic Meditation to be professional Initiators - teachers in our Vedic tradition.
The next Initiator Training course will be conducted by Limor Babai, Thom Knoles and Christian Bevacqua in Rishikesh, India from January 15th to April 9th, 2014.
This will be a full time 12 week residential program.
For further details and to complete the Application Form, please click here: www.vedicmeditationit.com
My brilliant and inspiring teacher, Thom Knoles will be in Sydney for 3 weeks this year.
Thom has been teaching meditation for the past 45 years. He is a master of Vedic Meditation as well as an expert in physics, psychology, cognitive neuroscience and consciousness.
Thom will conduct Private Consultations for Meditators at the Double Bay Meditation Centre for 5 days only - on July 24th and July 30th to August 2nd. If you would like to make an appointment with Thom for a Private Consultation please contact Anna Dudek at: annadudek.meditation@gmail.com
For further details of Thom's tour of Sydney, please click here: Thom Knoles Tour of Sydney 2013
It is important to remember that the goal of Vedic Meditation is not to transcend thought in every 20 minute meditation session.
Vedic Meditation is a practice which systematically de-excites the mind. However, we may not experience pure silence in every meditation session.
As we de-excite the mind in meditation, the body follows and we experience a profound state of rest. This causes the body to unwind stress. As the body releases stress during meditation, the mind can become active with thoughts and we may even experience emotions or body sensations. Those experiences are the after effect or by-product of the body “unstressing”, detoxing and healing. When there is more stress in the body, there are more opportunities for stress to be released. During the early days of meditation, when the body is still holding a lifetime backlog of stress, only very little de-excitation is needed in order to trigger its release. As we clear out that backlog through regular daily practice, the trend is toward more sustained periods of depth in meditation.
Meditation is a process, not an outcome. The process during the 20 minutes session is to effortlessly favour the mantra whenever we remember to do so. If we follow this instruction then we have meditated, whether we transcend or not.
The outcome of meditation is how it enhances our activity and life when we come out of meditation.
The wonderful benefits that come from meditating twice every day, such as:
- greater physical energy
- greater mental clarity
- feeling happy for no reason
- being calm in demanding situations
- having adaptive responses to changes of expectations
are some of the outcomes of meditation.
Therefore, when we meditate it is best not to have any expectation of any particular result during the 20 minute session. We can look for the results after meditation in our daily activity.
Ultimately, the perfect prescription is simply to keep regular with our practice, and take the whole experience as it comes, without judgement or concern.
With love,
Limor
My colleague and Master Ayurvedic Chef Tim Mitchell will conduct a course on Ayurveda and cooking as follows:
Friday 2nd August, 6-9pm
Saturday 3rd August, 11-5pm
The course will be held at The Intuitive Well in Bondi Junction and is suitable for everyone. You will learn the basic principles of Ayurveda (the science of longevity) and how you can bring balance to your mind and body through food. You will also enjoy feasting on Tim's delicious cooking.
This course is highly recommended for anyone who wishes to learn more about Ayurveda, Ayurvedic cooking and how to balance your body for optimal health.
For further details, please click here: Ayurveda and Cooking August 2013
The final group meditation meeting for 2012 will be held at 6.30pm on Monday 17th December.
Come and join us for group meditation and Vedic knowledge.
We look forward to seeing you there.
The first group meditation meeting for 2013 will be held at 6.30pm on Monday 21st January.
You can always check our meeting schedule via the website: Double Bay Meditation Meeting Times
Wishing you all the very best over the festive season and a Happy New Year.
All Vedic Meditators are invited to attend this Long Weekend Retreat in the beautiful Blue Mountains from Thursday 7th March (6.30pm) to Sunday 10th March (2pm).
During the Retreat, you will learn and practice 'Rounding'. ‘Rounding' combines a simple sequence of yoga positions (asanas) and a Vedic breathing technique (pranayama) with your current meditation practice. The result is an 'industrial-strength' program designed to enhance the restfulness of meditation, release your deepest stresses and expand your consciousness.
In addition to advancing both your meditation practice and waking state experience of life, you will come away from the Retreat feeling refreshed and revitalised for months to come.
For further details, please click here: Weekend Retreat
When we learn Vedic Meditation, we are taught that if at any moment during the meditation session we feel that we are beginning to forget the mantra, then we should not try to keep on remembering it, we should let it go.
One of the profound and common effects that we experience by meditating twice daily is that we are able to let go of the unsustainable in our lives.
Unsustainable friendships or relationships or careers, toxic substances or any other unsustainable habits that were able to continue to be sustained before learning to meditate are much harder to sustain once we add twice daily meditation to our lives.
Quite simply, Meditators are able to more easily follow charm, move away from aversion and let go of the unsustainable.
Vedic Meditation gives us a systematic method every day of removing stress from our physiology. This allows us to rely more and more on our intuition and we therefore find it much harder to strain and maintain the unsustainable.
So next time a life-long habit that you previously found charming starts to lose its charm, then simply apply the same instruction we use in meditation: if we feel that we are beginning to forget it, then we should not try to keep on remembering it, we should let it go.
With love,
Limor
All Vedic Meditators are invited to attend the special Guru Purnima meeting (full moon celebration) next Tuesday 3rd July, 2012 at 8pm at the North Bondi Meditation Centre; 32 Wentworth Street, Dover Heights.
The meeting will be conducted by Thom Knoles. It will be an evening of stories, eating of rich sweets together, taking in a moonlit stroll, and enjoying the great good fortune of being a meditator at the dawn of the age of enlightenment.
Please bring a flower with you and a wish!
A photo of the group of meditators who attended the recent Weekend Retreat in beautiful Bundanoon.
Participants learnt and practised 'Rounding'. 'Rounding' combines a simple sequence of yoga positions (asanas) and a Vedic breathing technique (pranayama) with meditation.
The depth and restfulness of meditation is multiplied exponentially as meditators extend the number of rounds through each day, from three to five to seven and beyond, diving deep into Nature and the Unified Field.
It was 3 days of deep rest, advanced knowledge, delicious food and fun.
Thank you to the highly conscious group who attended.
There are two kinds of happiness: self-referral & object-referral.
When our sole source of happiness involves our dependency on "objects" (that is, "non-self"; for example, "a loveable other" behaving ideally for us) then that is object-referral happiness. Our happiness becomes dependent on another person behaving according to rather strict relating guidelines. The guidelines are designed to achieve zero deviation from the behavioural formula that has manifested some degree of happiness for us. We do not want change, because change threatens our access to happiness.
The problem with all this begins in two areas (and rapidly engulfs the whole of life):
1) no thing or person is designed to sustain non-change or non-variation from a formula that merely brings happiness to another; evolution enforces progressive change,
and
2) it is an unsustainable living technique to source our personal inner experience in another, to make them responsible for what we are experiencing. Attempts to do this will turn one into a control fanatic, attracting destruction to that method of relating.
The behaviour of another is neither the source of one’s happiness nor the source of one’s suffering. “Others" are not responsible for our internal experience.
Self-referral happiness is the true fulfilment that comes from the mind incorporating the inner bliss of Being into our conscious daily experience. Self-referral happiness allows us to have adaptive responses to demands (changes of expectation) and find within ourselves solutions to life's challenges.
In the words of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi:
“A strong mind is tolerant; a weak mind is easily overcome by the surroundings. If one doubts another's behaviour, one will continue to have doubts even if he expresses love & joy when one meets him, because the doubts were present before the conversation started. So a doubting or unkind mind fails to enjoy even the joyfulness and sincerity of the prevailing surroundings.
To improve relationships we must first improve our own minds and then we shall begin to behave well. Surroundings respond to us best if we are grounded in the art of Being, which is the technique that places our lives on a high level so that we naturally and innocently behave well in harmony and joyfulness.
Contact with Being (through meditation) not only improves and satisfies the individual life but improves the atmosphere, increases harmony and reduces fear, hatred, tension, cruelty, and antagonism. When Being is infused into the minds of individuals, social relationships improve in the most automatic and natural way, great harmony is produced in the atmosphere.”
With love,
Limor
My brilliant and inspiring teacher, Thom Knoles will be touring Australia in June and July this year.
Thom has been teaching meditation for the past 44 years. He is a master of Vedic Meditation as well as an expert in physics, psychology, cognitive neuroscience and consciousness.
Thom will conduct two meetings at the Double Bay Meditation Centre:
An INTERMEDIATE MEDITATION MEETING - Monday 11 June 2012, 7pm to 8.30pm - free and open to all Vedic Meditators.
An ADVANCED KNOWLEDGE MEETING – Sunday 8 July 2012, 7pm to 9.30pm - attendance fee of $55 per person. Pre-registration required. Topic: PERFECT ORDER: Your Life, Your Universe.
All Vedic Meditators, regardless of experience level, are welcome to attend both meetings.
For further details of these meetings and Thom's tour of Australia, please click here: Thom Knoles Tour of Australia 2012
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