Oh meditators...
Are you sure you are meditating?

- TARCHIN HEARN

Courses

Mana will be back in Perth from 7-19 July

Classes

Please note new venue for classes: Yoga Moves Studio, 45 Evans Street, Shenton Park, 6008 - thank you Sara, Richard and Michael!

Working with strong emotions: the four foundations of mindfulness - 7.30pm Wednesday July 11
When we are in reaction - all our strong habitual emotional patterns - we usually totally believe the stories we create! Amazing, eh? We tend to seek answers and resolutions from within the story - this is the never ending internal dialogue we are all familiar with. There is no resolution here. But as we learn to recognise the four foundations of mindfulness we open to other significant aspects of our responses to the situation. The teaching is incredibly simple, but an intellectual understanding is of very limited use here - most of us have to hear about and practice with the four foundations many times before we have the presence to fully use them when we most need them - as we develop a 'habit' of mindfulness that has something like the same 'oomph' as our reactive patterns, we begin to taste freedom. Teaching, discussion, and meditation practice.

Working with strong emotions: sending and receiving (Tonglen) - 7.30pm Thursday July 12
Learning to let difficult emotions touch us, we open to them (receiving) and send them what we deeply need (sending). We can do this for ourselves, or for others. With receiving and sending practice, we integrate our life energies by undoing life-long habits habits of needing to 'fix' things, and of controlling, fighting, ignoring, distracting ourselves from the troubled emotional places in us and others. We integrate... we take in and genuinely relate to a widening range of our experience... our clarity, stability and presence of mind increase as we go. Teaching, discussion, and meditation practice.

Primary practice - 7.30pm Wednesday July 18
An introduction to a simple and profound way to remain more open when we find our perceptions contracting or closing down in all kinds of situations - where we get highly energised as well as well as where we get challenged - in work, relationships, family - or just all by ourselves! This practice is a contemporary expression of meditations in the Tibetan Mahamudra-Dzogchen traditions, and is highly relevant in contemporary western lifestyles.

Retreat

Retreat venue is at a beach-side villa at Scarborough: 174 The Esplanade, Scarborough. For directions and info, phone Bernie on 0417 185 979.

Chenrezig retreat. 7pm friday July 13 - 2.30pm sunday July 15

Chenrezig practice helps us open to compassion - the deepest compassion that goes right to the core of our challenges, and right to the full potential of our human spirit. Chenrezig shows us simple, deep and practical ways of working with six 'realms' or primary modes of experiencing the world we live in. Each 'realm' is one dimension of the range of form consciousnesses. The 'realms' can also be seen as psychological places to hang out - we usually have one or two favourites - the world then takes on the forms that fit our particular viewpoint and perspective when we are 'in' a particular realm. We will explore the 'six realms' from different practice perspectives - their potential, the conditioned emotion reactivities of each realm, and transforming the conditioned energies into wisdom mind. Chenrezig practice is a wonderfully direct way of working with our deep material that can be readily applied to our daily lives - relationships, work, creativity, play and so on.

There will be practical meditation, teaching, reflection and discussion. We will also do some mandala drawing that will help us touch into some of the deeper currents shaping this time in our life journey - both consciously and unconsciously. Chenrezig and our retreat time together will help us see fresh possibilities and familiar challenges in new and enabling ways.

This is a non-residential retreat. Each day will be a full program, you go home at night. If you have a busy household or come from out of town you may well be able to stay - check with Bernie or Mana before the retreat. Important to take care of your retreat time: please attend to all your business, family needs etc well before the retreat, so that you will not need to run errands, check emails or phone messages etc during the retreat.

Please register for this retreat with Bernie or Mana. For your benefit and for the benefit of others at the retreat, please note that registration means you intend to be there for the whole weekend program.

Bring to retreat:
Notebook and pen
Wear loose comfortable clothing
Large drawing paper (ie A3 or A2 size), coloured pencils, pencil and eraser, a pair of compasses if you have one
Food to share. Please discuss this with Bernie before the retreat - 0417 185 979.

Interviews/ one-on-one
If you would like to discuss your meditation practice or life-exploring-healing journey with Mana, make an appointment by email - reply to this newsletter. Old and new students/ seekers welcome.
Personal interviews will be either at 174 The Esplanade, Scarborough or 120C Beatrice St, Innaloo depending on the day you book. Please check when you make the appointment.

Cost for all teachings, retreat and interviews:
donation for cost of venue
donation for teaching
there will be two donation bowls

Registration and info for all courses: email or phone Mana on 0417 946 034 - Email is the most reliable method as Mana is often out of town.

.

Puja

tue 20 december - chenrezig - opening to compassion, working with colour & path qualities
wed 21 december – green tara - divine mother, healing, support for growth and path exploration
tue 27 december - vajrasattva - touching 'diamond mind', clearing energetic and karmic hindrances
wed 28 december – medicine buddha - meditation for healing and healers - ie everyone!

All pujas at 7.30pm 45a Harvey St Mosman Park. Please let Mana know if you are coming.

Pujas guided group meditations in which we open to radiant mind that is ever-present within us and all beings. In these pujas we use visualisation, mantra, emptying and intention to awaken different aspects of our potential. These meditations were developed by very radiant minds in the tantric traditions of North India over a thousand years ago, in some cases from the time of the buddha 2500 years ago. They have been cared for and developed in the Tibetan buddhist schools, and are now handed to us in a teaching lineage that is unbroken from the time of the buddha.

If you have some grounding in mindfulness meditation practice with any teacher you are welcome.

New courses

Mindfulness meditation - starts November 9

'This course was a beautiful time that I looked forward to each week' more feedback

6 week course please plan to come to the whole course - all are welcome - beginners and others with more experience will be coming. Learn to meditate or deepen your practice. There will be some hands on meditation each session, as well as time for questions and interaction.

Meditation is opening to things as they are. Many of the methods we learn in meditation are very simple - however, learning to open to things as they actually are in our daily lives can be a life-time's journey, or at least the journey of a lifetime. The journey is both enriching and challenging.

Meditation is not for the faint-hearted, nor for those who routinely avoid the whispered longings of their own hearts - Jon Kabat-Zinn

To see things as they are, we need to learn to look at what is actually present in our experience. There is acceptance in this. Including acceptance of all the potential and creativity within us. Without mindfulness most of us tend to see things through emotionally conditioned screens of all our likes and dislikes, and socially conditioned screens of all our shoulds and shouldn'ts. Meditation is an ongoing process of opening to discovery. There is no success or failure, only service to this process. There is no place to arrive, only here, this moment. In this presence, everything opens.

All our classes and retreats are non-denominational. Much of the buddha's teaching remains useful today. It is about view and method, it is not a belief system. Meditators are welcome to retain whatever belief system has meaning for them. In time, we become our own teachers.

How can mindfulness help me in my everyday life? Sometimes I feel stuck - can meditation help? Will meditation help me find more peace? What can I do when difficult emotions keep happening? Can I use meditation for healing? How can I move more directly to the potential in a new project or situation?

When: Wednesdays 7.30-9.15 pm
Where: 45a Harvey St, Mosman Park
Bring: Notebook and pen, wear comfortable clothing
Cost: suggested donation $120 for the course

Ongoing events

Chanting sundays and other chanting/ devotional music events - info here

upcoming courses, workshops and retreats

Scheduled retreats will appear on the retreats page. If you are interested in any of the upcoming courses, workshops or retreats below, please register your interest here and we can keep you informed.

Additional retreats, courses and class times can be organised in response to your interest - your suggestions and requests are welcome.