Video introduction to Oxford Meditation
A short video to introduce Tejvan Pettinger – one of the class givers and some of the things you might expect in our meditation classes.
A short video to introduce Tejvan Pettinger – one of the class givers and some of the things you might expect in our meditation classes.
A Twenty-First Century Seeker is a practical guide to learn meditation and find greater spiritual and meaning in our everyday life. It is authored by Dr. Pradhan Balter, who has practised meditation for 45 years and offered meditation programs in more than forty countries.
“Maintaining spiritual principles in a very hectic world.”
If you are seeking to look beyond the stresses and strains of modern life, this book will help re-connect with your own inner source, whilst maintaining our daily activities of work, leisure and family. The book will give practical guidance and the confidence to find the inner stillness which helps to deal with the turmoils of life.
One of the challenges in developing a regular meditation practise is finding the actual time to meditate. We have 24 hours at our disposal, but finding 20 minutes for quiet reflection can be surprisingly difficult! However, to give ourselves the best chance in getting the most out of meditation, we need to cultivate a regular daily practise. As we get into a daily routine of meditation, it becomes much easier to find time. We start to enjoy meditation so much, we want to do it before anything else; but in the beginning we need to make quite an effort to make sure we can always find 15 minutes in the day.
To find time for meditation, these are a few tips that we might consider.
Meditation is a simple exercise where we try to quieten the mind and enter into a more peaceful and illumining consciousness.
If you have never meditated before, you might wonder what will happen in meditation. At first, not much may happen at all! But, even if you find meditation a little difficult, hopefully you will feel a new sense of happiness. As you progress in meditation, you will feel a deeper sense of peace and happiness.
Firstly, you just become aware of what it’s like to sit in outer silence. We try to keep the body as still and calm as we can; we try to forget all about our usual worries and concerns, but focus on a particular meditation exercise.
At our first attempts, we may be surprised at how persistent the mind is. Even though we are trying to keep the mind quiet and blank, thoughts still appear. Some people comment that they never realised how many useless thoughts their mind could produce in a short space of time!
After some preparation and letting go of the first thoughts that come into the mind, we may see that our mind is slowing down. We become aware that there is more to us than our surface consciousness. It is when we can distance ourselves from our own thoughts that we feel a sense of peace and well-being.