What sort of meditation do you do?

30/08/2015 at 10:01 am | Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments
Tags: , , , , ,

Angel clouds

People often ask what sort of meditation we practise at the Studio. They expect to hear that we follow a particular school, be it Mindfulness, Christian, Vipassana, Transcendental or possibly following the teachings of a Buddhist leader such as Thich Nhat Hanh.

The truth is, we don’t follow any of these schools, although we do take an interest in them and are inspired by their insights. But our method is much simpler.

I call our practice ‘Intuitive Meditation’, because it came to me in a series of dreams and mystical experiences many years ago, around the time of the birth of my son, Tim. Readers of this blog will know that Tim was born with a complex set of health issues, and a happy, sociable and life-loving personality.

For a period of two years or more, before and after his birth, I experienced some intense dreams and waking visions. Through them I began to understand every human is a unique manifestation of the ‘All That Is’ – apparently separate, yet actually part of the whole.

One morning, as I woke up, I heard a simple yet beautiful song coming apparently from an invisible realm. It was sublimely uplifting. A mellow, male voice began each line with “I am…” Each verse had five lines, and the final line was always, “I am the Ocean”. The ‘O’ was long drawn out. The first four lines varied, but followed the same format:

“I am the land

I am the sea

I am the leaf

I am the tree

I am the ocean.’

The song faded away as I became fully awake. I was left with a sense of the beauty of nature, and the numinous insight that a unifying consciousness shines through all aspects of nature, including ourselves.

Immediately, I began to use the “I am” format in my own meditation practice. I would breathe in “I am” and breathe out a word from nature, or from our true nature. “I am leaf…”  or “I am peace…” or “I am water…”. I would use one word for each meditation session.

The method was instantly calming and blissful. More than that, intuitive insights arose: it felt as though I was receiving invisible guidance to help me tread a sometimes difficult path.

Over many years, other people began to join me. Today, small groups of us gather in a hillside studio in North Wiltshire, where expansive views constantly remind us that natural beauty is in us and around us, and a subtle light shines through it all.

How to keep a dream diary

01/06/2015 at 10:01 pm | Posted in Uncategorized | 5 Comments
Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Guidance of my dreams

Keeping a dream diary is one of the kindest, wisest gifts you can give yourself. Even if you don’t remember your dreams, keep a journal anyway. Record whatever you can recall on waking up. If you only catch a fleeting mood, record it. Hold this intention: ‘I am now ready for the guidance of my dreams’. And, in time, your diary will begin to fill.

I was inspired back in the 1990s by an early version of Denise Linn’s book, The Hidden Power of Dreams. I loved her suggestion that you write an uplifting title in the front of your journal. This might be something along the lines of ‘My dream diary: a beautiful book filled with beautiful gifts’. Many volumes later, I still write something similar.

On each left hand page…

Write the date, and a title for a dream you had the night before. The title can be anything that seems to sum up your dream. Then simply write down your dream. 

You may find you don’t remember any dreams. In that case, just write down any fleeting thoughts or feelings you had on waking up. Try to notice if you had any pictures or words in your mind on waking, and record those. Or you may find you had several unrelated dreams in the same night. Just write them down, as if they were chapters of the same dream.

On each right hand page…

Write down any thoughts or observations you have about the dream. Perhaps you were doing something the day before that triggered it? Over time you will begin to understand the meaning of different images in your dream. It can be helpful and enjoyable to draw or paint a picture of the dream on this page – you can gain new insights that way.

The key to your dreams

Be aware that everything and everyone in your dream is representing an aspect of yourself. Everything is symbolic. You don’t have to understand all the symbols, but it’s very rewarding when you start to interpret them. You can think of it as a puzzle to which only you hold the key. And over time, the more you study your dreams, the more you will understand.

 Never be scared of your dreams – they are there to help you to understand yourself and your life choices better.

Your own dream dictionary

The best dream dictionary you can ever have comes from first-hand observation of your own dreams: go by how the dream symbols feel – their essence, their energy. Where in your own life do you have a similar feeling?

 Here are some examples to get you started…

Narrow streets, or doors that are difficult to go through may suggest that a current course of action, or a current attitude, is not ideal. Conversely, if a dream has a sense of space, with wide avenues and clear views, it may be showing you that your current course in life is the right one for you.

People you dream of may represent some aspect of yourself that you are working on. What qualities do you associate with that person? 

If someone dies in a dream, it often means a new chapter of your own self-development is beginning, and maybe it’s a new chapter for that person too (it doesn’t mean that anyone is actually going to die!)

If a house or car is in need of repair, it may mean your health or career is in need of some tender loving care. Newly discovered floors and rooms in a building can mean that you will be exploring new areas of your own interests and abilities – maybe a new career is opening up for you.

Scary people or monsters chasing you may mean that a repressed part of your psyche is ready to be reintegrated. When you’re awake, spend some time loving and blessing the scary beings, ask them what they want… in your imagination, hug them!

Water often represents emotions – is it flowing, turbulent, flooding, or calm?



Nature: A beautiful object from nature – such as a flower or a feather – may represent an aspect of your natural self that you are beginning to reconnect with, and can also represent guidance from other realms.

Night guidance

Note that over time your observed dreams are likely to become more vivid, more colourful, as though you are actually there. You may experience the bliss of flying, and receive clear spiritual lessons that remain in your mind when you wake up. You may wake up with recipes, formulas… all sorts of knowledge that can help you, and other people.

Record it all in your dream diary. And be ready to carry your new knowledge into your waking life. That’s when the fun really begins!

2015-03-05 12.41.53

Teachings from a faun on inner vision

26/11/2013 at 10:48 pm | Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments
Tags:

Far-seeingLast night, I was in a simply furnished, rustic room with a faun. The faun was reclining on a couch. Despite the restful pose, he looked alert and full of pure, woodland-fresh energy. He was smaller than me, and lean.

I was sitting in a chair a little way across the room, learning a new skill. The faun was directing me to go to a faraway place. Immediately, I found myself there. I could see landscape, people, and events. Just as quickly, I found myself back in the room with the faun. I understood, to my surprise, that I had never left the room. I also couldn’t remember any details of the place I had seen, but the faun said I would once I’d done the exercise a few more times. The faun was teaching me far-seeing. This process was repeated again and again. Each time, I saw a different place as though I was actually there. Each time, when my consciousness returned to the faun’s room I couldn’t remember what I’d seen. However, I was beginning to get fragments of images.

My visit with the faun was a dream, albeit a vivid and interesting one.

What preceded the dream? What might have helped to create it?

Visions with a message

Yesterday, a friend who works with elderly people came to the house. She told me about a conference she’d attended recently, about visual impairment. “Did you know,” she said, “people who lose their vision may hallucinate?”

She told me about one woman who regularly ‘saw’ a child in her kitchen. And she told me about another woman who ‘saw’ jungle all around her.

These hallucinations were described by the conference speaker as frightening. However, reading between the lines, it sounded to me as though the first woman, at least, positively enjoyed the company of the child in her kitchen.

I wonder, now, if the visions experienced by these two visually impaired people were being ‘medicalised’ and thus automatically viewed as something negative? It may be that their visions, like my dream of the faun, were a form of far-seeing – or at the least a vivid imagining. And this is not a bad thing per se. It’s just a thing.

The images that those women saw with their inner eyes may have carried insights for them, just as dream images can bring insights. During an important time of change in my life,  I dreamt a lot about jungles. For me, the message was clear: I was re-connnecting with my own true, wild self. That was a good thing. Maybe the lady who hallucinates a jungle is doing something similar. Maybe if someone said to her, “How interesting, what a beautiful thing for you to see”, she would start to enjoy and value her inner vision more.

The world is a lot more expansive, beautiful and interesting than we generally allow ourselves to see. It’s okay to be a little wild. As long as we harm no-one, including ourselves, it’s okay to see fauns and jungles with our mind’s eye. We might even learn something from them.

 

Website Built with WordPress.com.
Entries and comments feeds.