Dear Meditator,

Excitement and meditation aren't necessarily words that commonly go together — but there's certainly a buzz about in meditation circles at the moment. Here's why.

The inaugural Australian Meditation Conference & Expo draws closer. Get along for your chance to listen to and meet some of Australia's leading meditation teachers.

Eric Harrison will be running a workshop "How to Meditate Well" the day before the Conference. Eric is one of the best meditation teachers I know and this will be a rare opportunity to catch him in Melbourne.

Also, there are two weeks left of FREE meditations in the St Kilda Botanic Gardens, a whole bunch of interesting Simply Silence sessions coming up over the next few months and our new workshop "A Whole Brain Approach to Stress Management".

Finally, a new term of 4 Week Basic Meditation courses start in two weeks and registrations for this years final Meditation Teacher Training Course are now being accepted. Get in quick, there are only limited places available.

I hope you enjoy the newsletter. Feel free to email comments, questions or suggestions to: matt@melbournemeditationcentre.com.au

In This Issue...

• Spot Meditation
• Free Meditation Download
• Course schedule
• Forthcoming Events
• Matt's Musings - 3 Days on Retreat

Spot Meditation

Meditation on the Go.

Here's one for the motorheads. Next time you're at the petrol pump, fill your mind with calm as you fill your car with fuel. I fill my car once a week, usually on a Monday night on the way home from teaching in Clifton Hill. Instead of letting my thinking mind idle pointlessly, I let it shut down for the few minutes it takes to fill up. How? Simply by paying close attention to the sounds, smells and sights around me. Try it sometime.

How and where do you meditate when you've only got a minute? Send your own spot meditations to matt@melbournemeditationcentre.com.au

The best suggestion each month will be published here.

Free Mediation Download

Increasingly, we live in a 24/7 world. Simple (but essential) things, like rest and sleep often seem to get pushed aside in favour of work, excitement or just the sheer weight of 'stuff' to do. I recently visited a client who said he works an average of 20 hours a day, 7 days a week. He said he felt like his brain was about to explode and that he needed to learn to relax! His was a somewhat extreme case, but maybe you can see something of yourself in this scenario.

The solution need not be complicated. Just take some time out to recharge. Regular spot meditations are a great way to stay in balance, but it's a good idea to really give yourself some quality time out now and then.

With that in mind, you might like to try this 45 minute guided meditation from Joseph Goldstein, co-founder of the Insight Meditation Society in Massachusetts. The IMS is one of the Western world's most-respected meditation centers and their teachers have offered guidance in Buddhist meditations known as vipassana (insight) and metta (lovingkindness) for over 30 years.

Course Schedule

Term 3 Courses commence the week beginning May 11. You can register online for any of the following.

Term 3 May/June

Meditation Events

Meditate in the Gardens 2008

Start your day with a relaxed and clear mind. Join me on Tuesday mornings from 7.00 - 7.45am at the Rose Garden Rotunda in the St Kilda Botanic Gardens for a series of free guided meditations, presented by the City of Port Phillip. There's limited seating available so arrive early or bring a yoga mat, rug or cushion to sit on. Sessions run on April 8, 15, 22 & 29, and May 6 & 13 (with an option to continue for a further two weeks).

Simply Silence

Get your regular dose of relaxation and calm at one of our Simply Silence sessions in North Melbourne or Elwood. It's a great way to discover and explore meditation in a friendly group environment.

Elwood Schedule:

• May 12 - Jarek Czechowicz
• May 26 - Arian Young
• June 9 - Matthew Young

North Melbourne Schedule:

• May 15 - Paul Majewski
• June 5 - Rita Cattivera

Meditate08

This June the inaugural Australian Meditation Conference & Expo will be held at the Melbourne Museum. To the best of my knowledge this is a first of its kind and will provide an opportunity to listen to and attend workshops conducted by some of Australia's most prominent meditation teachers, including 'Guru of Calm' Paul Wilson, Eric Harrison, Dr Craig Hassad and Paul Bedson from the Gawler Foundation. More information and tickets at www.meditate08.com.au.

May 31 - A Whole Brain Approach to Stress Management

This full day interactive workshop will guide you through an exploration of your preferred thinking styles. Along the way you'll develop a clear understanding of how thinking styles and models influence everything you do and from there you'll learn how to harness this greater self-awareness to manage your time, relationships and stress more effectively.

During the day you'll also develop an understanding of how and why meditation works, what parts of the brain you access when you meditate and how you can use a variety of simple meditation techniques to maintain balance throughout the day and to dip into deep states of relaxation and calm when you need to.

June 21 - How to Meditate Well with Eric Harrison

This workshop will be conducted by Eric Harrison from Perth Meditation Centre. Eric is one of Australia's most experienced meditation teachers and this will be a rare opportunity to catch him in Melbourne. Book early to avoid disappointment.

Here's what the workshop will cover:

For many people, their meditation lacks imagination. If you understand exactly how meditation works however, you can be enormously flexible in how you apply it. In this workshop, Eric will explain the psychology and biology of meditation, and how to adjust this practice to your lifestyle and your goals. In addition to "formal" meditation, he will present a range of spot-meditations, so you can relax quickly and calm the mind repeatedly throughout the day. It is quite possible to meditate while walking, waiting, doing exercise or simple household activities. Finally, he will provide exercises to enhance that self-observant, watchful quality of mind called "awareness" or "mindfulness". If you know where you're at during the day, physically and mentally, you function so much better. This workshop is equally suitable for beginners or experienced people.

The Changing Face of Meditation

Some of you will know that I spent the Anzac Day long weekend on an Insight Dialogue Meditation retreat at Commonground, near Seymour.

The developer of Insight Dialogue, Gregory Kramer, says in his new book of the same name:

A great deal of our suffering in life is in relationship to other people. We cannot reasonably expect individualistic philosophies and solitary practices to directly address the pain and confusion that arises between two people or in society at large. What is required is a fundamentally interpersonal understanding of the path and a meditation practice explicitly evolved to take place in relationship with others.

This is what Gregory has endeavoured to do with Insight Dialogue, and though the practice he has developed is drawn from the Buddhist tradition, he teaches with little of the religion, dogma and Eastern ritual typically associated with Buddhism.

Another teacher who is taking meditation in a similar direction is Lorin Roche. Here's what he has to say on intimacy:

In a cartoon that was on many refrigerators in the 90s, Ziggy walks up the mountain and addresses the sky, “What is the secret of happiness?” A voice from the clouds answers, “Fasting, celibacy and poverty!” After a pause, Ziggy asks, “Is there someone else up there I can talk to?”

Many teachings on meditation ignore intimacy, or imply that your personal life is an obstacle to your spiritual practice. This is because until about thirty-five years ago, and for the previous thirty centuries, almost all meditation teachers were solitary, celibate males, removed from the world. They were not in intimate relationships and knew nothing about them.

Of course, neither Kramer or Roche deny the benefits of solitary meditation practices; and in fact, the skills you develop when learning to meditate can be applied easily to interpersonal or relational situations. We'll be integrating such an understanding into future courses at MMC.

For the curious, you can read excerpts of Gregory Kramer's book Insight Dialogue and Lorin Roche's full article on Intimacy online.

Know someone who could chill out?

Do you have friends who are perpetually stressed or anxious, have trouble sleeping or could just do with learning how to relax? Do them a favour and forward this email to them. (Or if this is you, subscribe here.)