"The essence of my life is simple: In my early childhood I had several powerful experiences or instincts that have remained with me and inspired me. The first was a very powerful sense of the beauty and wonder of life; just looking at the blue of the sky was enough to make me experience and know that there was a power and goodness behind everything."The second was that I kept noticing that there was more to me than just the child, the personality, Ipresented to the world. Within me there was another identity— watchful, strong, loving."The third was an instinctive outrage at and sense of compassion towards injustice and suffering."My life has been about developing and integrating those three influences. I teach what I too am learning and deepening."
William Bloom is Britain’s leading author and educator in the mind-body-spirit field with over thirty years of practical experience, research and teaching in modern spirituality. He is founder and co-director of The Foundation for Holistic Spirituality and the Spiritual Companions project.
His mainstream career includes a doctorate in political psychology from the LSE, ten years working with adults and adolescents with special needs, and delivering hundreds of trainings, many in the NHS. He was also a successful novelist and publisher.
His holistic background includes a two-year spiritual retreat living among the Saharan Berbers in the High Atlas Mountains, twenty-five years on the faculty of the Findhorn Foundation, and co-founder and director for 10 years of the St. James’s Church Alternatives Programme in London.
My Tantra TeacherJia Khechari has been on a spiritual path for most of his life. He began ameditation practice over 40 years agothat continues to this day. His healingpractice is centered around thetransformation and healing of thechakras with the use of sounddynamics and breathing energetics. His background in wellness includes Asian healing arts, Qi gong, Shamanism, Kundalini yoga, the use of vocal toning, Tibetan Singing Bowls and the Tantric arts.He is the author of several books including Esoteric Tantra: Essays and Essence Writings, Spring Tea Zen Style Love Poems, and Sahaja Tantra - An Outline for Sacred Loving.
Jia's first spiritual teacher was jazz muscian John Coltrane. "His music touched my soul so deeply, He gave me wings and for that I am forever grateful."
Jia is a graduate of the Acupressure Institute Berkeley, 1988. He is a practicing tantrika and worshiper of the Universal Divine Feminine.
Forgiveness
Dr. Fred Luskin has completed
extensive research on the training
and measurement of forgiveness
therapy. His research demonstrates
that learning forgiveness leads to
increased physical vitality, hope,
greater self–efficacy, enhanced
optimism and conflict resolution skills. It also shows that forgiveness lessens the physical and emotional toll of stress, and decreases hurt, anger depression and blood pressure.
He has worked with men and women from both sides of the violence in Northern Ireland who have had family members killed and with different groups of financial advisors after the stock market crash of 2000 to enhance their conflict resolution and stress management skills.
Dr. Luskin has worked with many organizations and has trained lawyers, doctors, church leaders and congregations, hospital staffs, teachers and other professionals to manage stress and enhance forgiveness all over the United States.
He is the Director of the Stanford University Forgiveness Projects and an Associate Professor at the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology. He also serves as the Co Chair of the Garden of Forgiveness Project at Ground Zero in Manhattan.
Vedic Meditation
Jillian has practised meditation for
over 15 years, and in 2003 qualified
as a teacher after 14 months of
full-time study in the mountains of
Northern Arizona. Her continuing
studies take her to the US and India
several times a year.
Prior to becoming a teacher of Vedic Meditation, she was a successful corporate executive, and held a variety of international leadership roles throughout Europe, the U.S. and Asia Pacific.
Born in New Zealand, Jillian has lived in Australia, the U.S., Sweden and France and currently resides in London.
Vedic Meditation
Michael qualified as a teacher of Vedic
Meditation after two years of intensive
study culminating in three months in the
mountains of India and Flagstaff, Arizona.
Prior to becoming a meditation teacher,
Michael worked in the entertainment
industry as a Marketing Director for high profile music, theatre and education organisations.
Michael was born and raised in the Midwest United States and has spent much of his professional life in Seattle and Los Angeles. He is currently based in London and teaches in the UK, Europe and the U.S.
What does “Jai Guru Deva” mean? (excerpt)
Published: 15/1/2011 by Thom Knoles
Jai = “joy, hail, glory to”
Guru = “remover of darkness”
Deva = “a shining one”, source of English word “divine”.
Thus, “Jai Guru Deva” literally means “Glory to the shining remover of darkness.”
Who “Guru Deva” is to the individual user of the phrase, is almost is beside the point.
The phrase, “Jai Guru Deva”, has become a universal salutation, blessing, greeting, opening and closing phrase used by Vedic meditators for millennia.
It is a way of reminding oneself regularly and acknowledging with others the truth that the knowledge we enjoy so freely came from a source other than one’s small self, and offers gratitude to that source.
To read the full article: http://thomknoles.com/tkblog
For more on Thom: http://thomknoles.com/
From my blog at https://lightwithspirit.wordpress.com/
Lately I've been meditating on the uniqueness of the teacher-student relationship in the Tantric tradition, and in India in general. Some time ago, I visited with a friend whose husband has been a student of Ravi Shankar for over ten years. He is with Ravi as much as six hours a day, and they work together almost daily. They travel together with Ravi and his family, and they have been enveloped by Ravi's extended family. There is a palpable warmth and a reverent sweetness in the mutual respect and caring among them all. Ravi is teaching him far more than sitar and Indian musical notation, and Ravi is learning from him well.
When my friend talked about the way they work together and relate to each other, it struck me that this is the very nature of the teacher-student relationship in Indian tradition; and that the mutuality of learning is completely different from the pedagogical tradition of western teachers. That eastern tradition of the direct, close teacher-student relationship is completely different from the type of lecture-audience setup we experience in our schools.
The literal meaning of the word, avatara, is descent. It is no physical climb down however, but rather akin to the teacher, who, when instructing small children, has to come down to the "level" of the child, hold his hand and teach him how to write the alphabet. This is the teacher's avatara in front of the child.
"A good guru [teacher] is one who first goes to the level of his disciple's ability or understanding and grants him knowledge accordingly." [Source unknown]
True teachers, those for whom teaching is their life's vocation, embark on a path of leading with wisdom, compassion and energy; to draw the best from students and to help them to realize their own powers to love, care for and help both themselves and others.
I've been very blessed in the Tantra teacher to whom I was guided. When I say, "My Teacher," I encompass an entire, unique, mutually loving and teaching-learning relationship. I feel boundless connection to my teacher that flows from our mutual acceptance and respect for each other, and I felt the depth of our mutual reverence through my Tantric initiation. Our relationship is unique in my life, and we will always maintain it.
©2008, RK Silipo. All rights reserved.
"A good guru [teacher] is one who first goes to the level of his disciple's ability or understanding and grants him knowledge accordingly."[Source unknown]
