Welcome to 2011

HAPPY NEW YEAR from Circumference.

Our wish for 2011 is a world filled with compassion and global harmony.

"If you want to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion."
(Dali Lama)

Be the change you want to see in the world ...

Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year

“Christmas gift suggestions:
To your enemy, forgiveness.
To an opponent, tolerance.
To a friend, your heart.
...To a customer, service.
To all, charity.
To every child, a good example.
To yourself, respect.”
(Oren Arnold)

On behalf of the Circumference team, we wish you all a very Merry Xmas, peaceful New Year and a wonderful 2011.

Warm wishes,
Robert and Shanti

Women, Power and Hollywood

Recently a friend of mine sent me a link to a speech Helen Mirren gave at a Powerful Women in Hollywood presentation. It was her acceptance speech for winning the Sheryl Lansing award.

It was fascinating to listen to her view on women in society, in Hollywood ... and the importance of their legacy for future generations ...

Always witty and intelligent ... her description of Hollywood being obsessed with mediocre young men and their 'penis' certainly makes you think ...

Watch her wonderful speech below ...

Changing Educational Paradigms

"Teachers open the door, but you must enter by yourself." (Chinese proverb)

Sir Ken Robinson, a leading thinker on education, creativity and innovation, who has advised various governments and major global corporations says that most education systems around the world including Australia’s, are still modelled on the needs of the industrial age.

In this animation, he talks about the 'anaesthesia' of modern education and encourages a new paradigm shift. His definition of creativity and divergent thinking is quite amazing.



Interested in learning more about 21st Century Educational Strategies?
Please visit http://www.circumference.net.au/ for more information on our Educational Consultancy services.

Best wishes,

The Circumference Team

Life = Risk

So many of the world's greatest geniuses did not start that way. Instead, they spent years honing their craft ... taking risks ... keeping on going despite adversity.

What are your dreams? Are you living the life you really want to lead?

Think of the pioneers in history who 'stepped out' of the box. The famous people who took a chance ... took a risk ...

They cannot be forgotten ... they cannot be dismissed. They were Catalysts for change.


Interested in learning more about you? Your values and aspirations? The success strategies to put your dreams into action?

It's never too late to have a go.

Check out our Catalyst program at www.circumference.net.au
Email: contact@circumference.net.au if you'd like to join our 2011 programs.

Writing With Soul

Writing With Soul course has been such a beautiful success ... We've been exploring the stages of consciousness, creativity and the writing process gently during the past 4 weeks. It's also been wonderful to read everyone's writing on the Online Moodle. Isn't great when you create an online community that's filled with positive support, friendship and respect? Ah, only two weeks to go ... and we look forward to delving into the higher levels of spiritual awareness and creativity.

Here's a sample of one of our course participant's writing - written in 15 minutes ... but it absolutely highlights the beautiful creative connection we achieve in a 'state of flow':

The most powerful moment

Sheets of rain fell from above. A cliff, half eaten by waves forms a holed screen for the bay from the ocean. Wind, howling, as befitted the night, echoed across the headland, the eerie screams calling forth the dead from their graves. The overcast sky, purple with anger, seemed as if it were purposely pouring this rain as a punishment, it was so harsh. The thunder, booming, rolling around the echoes in the bay causing the earth to shake. Indeed, it was a scary night.

Behind the cliff, in the bay, was a small tent. Doors flapping wildly in the wind, the canvas soaked through and through wetting all inside, promising mold. Outside, a single lamp blazed behind it’s screen of murky class, illuminating a hunched figure wrapped in several layers to anyone close enough to see through the sheer thickness of the rain. The figure, if you could see him, would have been gazing into a small object in his had, so small, so infetismal, not even he could fully see it throught the rain the length of his bent arms. The object, pulled from it’s rightful place, was now in the open. Pulled from it’s ancient home, pulled from it’s ancient ties, now in the world of men. The world cried, the world trembled.

The man, gazing into his hands could feel a sense of mysteriousness, powerfulness, eminating from the thing. A small jade carving of an eye. A small eye, not accuractely belying the power it possessed. The single last treasure of the inca’s, the eye of the gods. “he who holds this eye shall see all”.

The man knew, all he had to do would be to put this eye close to his eye and it would sink into his flesh, become part of him. He would see like a god, he would be a god. Previous men, weaker than he, had not been able to stand it. Ariasis the pained, after years of wearing the eye, finally tried to pull it out. He pulled, clawed, screamed in pain as his hands tore through his face, ripping out the eye, the eye that wouldn’t come out, no matter how hard he pulled. Ariasis had killed himself trying, only for the eye to promptly roll out after he finally finished screaming, dead on the floor.

Armun, the terrorless had lasted less. Three days after wearing it, he caught site of his wife, and knew she would kill him. In his rage, he ordered her killed first, and kill her he did. Only after did he realise life was no longer worth living, and he, too, killed himself.

The eye had a history of death.

The figure, hands trembling, raised it to his eye, not quite touching but almost.

Thanks Jonathan for the beautiful writing ...

Walter Bellin - My Mentor

By Robert Meredith

I first met Walter Bellin sometime in the mid 1970s. He had come to live in London, and was travelling around giving talks on meditation. Wherever he went his reputation grew, and I felt honoured when sometime later he asked me to join him as a speaker on the lecture circuit.

You can’t be around Walter without being impressed by his knowledge and intelligence, but Walter is a natural teacher, and I found spending time with him was a constant source of inspiration and learning.  When, much later on, we studied teaching and training methods, we discovered that all the skill sets and strategies we were learning, Walter already displayed quite naturally.

Walter is also someone who creates and initiates. When he and his wife came to Australia, they founded The Self Transformation Centre, one of the first personal development organizations in Sydney. Within a short time, 150 people a month were coming to Walter’s courses, fascinated by the mixture of psychology, spiritual philosophy and emotional intelligence.  But the real ‘difference that made a difference’, was the powerful, personal experiential content that Walter brought to his programmes.

So much of the work that back in the 80s and 90s was thought of as ‘left field’, gradually became drawn into the mainstream and into corporate training, where ‘emotional intelligence’ has become a business essential. As a pioneer in the field, Walter now works at the highest level of organizations, and as he has always done, helps people find the best in themselves, and to bring that out both for themselves and the people they work with.

Think Different - the key to transformative leadership

Almost a century ago, Dale Carnegie wrote that human beings are driven not just by basic survival needs such as the need for food, water, good health and shelter ... but more importantly, that we desire 'greatness' and a sense of 'achievement' in our lives. All of us, no matter our age or professional careers, want to feel that the contribution we make in life is appreciated and respected.  We want to know that we made a unique difference.

But what separates 'leaders' from 'followers'? A true leader is able to 'step out' from the fold ... and uses their courage to take a leap of faith and work slowly towards achieving their dreams. Such a leader is brave and pioneering ... going where others fear to tread. And in doing so, they transform the world and leave it a better place for them having been there.

Take a look at this wonderful Apple commercial that captures the essence of truly inspirational leaders from the 20th Century ...



One of Australia's most inspirational leaders is Walter Bellin. Thirty years ago, Walter came from the U.S. to Australia with a dream to teach people how to achiever greater personal, spiritual and professional meaning and satisfaction in their lives. With courage and bravery, he began the process of establishing the Personal Development field in Australia. Thirty years later, adult education and corporate development are two of the most successful national industries.

On Tuesday 30th November, Circumference is honoured to launch our Corporate Soiree Leadership series with Walter Bellin as guest speaker. During the 2 hour evening, you will have the opportunity to listen and learn about his successful journey as a Corporate and Personal Development facilitator ... and discover the key skills that will help you on your own personal leadership path.

For more details, please visit our website and download our brochure at: http://circumference.net.au/corporate-programs/corporate-soiree/.

Alternatively, you can register directly for Corporate Soiree below.

Presenting With Presence ... Robert's Journey

By Robert Meredith

It’s been almost 40 years since I first started speaking and presenting to people from the front of the room. The number of people I have addressed over those years would be literally tens of thousands, and they fall into three distinct groups that reflect where I was working at the time.

The first groups, back in the early 1970s, were people who had come to hear a talk on meditation, at a time when meditation was generally thought of as something weird, strange, ‘foreign’, and that only hippies or the like would do!

Each week, on Monday evening, I would give a talk at the library on Kensington High Street in London, where sometimes five people would show up, sometimes twenty five. Giving these talks gave me the opportunity to learn and practice a fundamental presentation skill called ‘framing’.

Basically, every point you make in a presentation needs to be 'framed', that is - given a context. If you don't do this, your audience will come up with their own context, which may well not be the one you intend. The what, why, and how of framing, the different kinds of frames, and when specifically not to frame is a large subject, but one that we cover in depth on ‘Presenting with Presence’.

The second groups I worked with were on Personal Development programmes here in Australia. The major learning here was how to build rapport, trust and safety with a group, enough for them to be willing to open up, talk and self disclose in ways they might never have done before.                                               

The importance of building rapport and trust was underlined by one of my teachers who basically said, “..until you’ve built rapport, there is no point at all in going any further into the content you want to deliver. Rapport comes first!”

The third groups have been in business and corporate trainings. The first time I stood up in front of an in-house business group was different to anything I had done before, and with a shock I realized what it was – many of these people didn’t want to be there! Up until then I had had the privilege of standing in front of people who had chosen, and in most cases, paid to be there.  Over time I learnt another major lesson in presentation – how to enroll people in feeling it would be worthwhile for them to be there, even though they may not have chosen to be there in the first place!

These are just a few of the elements that go into effective presentation. If you’d like to learn more about these and many other factors that make presentations more impactful, come and join us for a weekend on Presenting with Presence. It’s an investment in yourself!

Presenting With Presence runs on November 13th and 14th. The cost of the program is $570. Join Robert Meredith and Barry Quin on this exciting weekend journey ...

Interesting in enrolling on Presenting With Presence? Register here ...
 

Snowballing

Wow ... thanks to everyone who is reading the Circumference blog! I've just downloaded our latest web statistics. Welcome Russia!

Becoming Great In Your Field

by Shanti Clements

 

Over the past 20 years, there's been an amazing amount of research done in the Corporate and Personal Development fields linking Happiness psychology with business success. Scientists and researchers such as Martin Seligman, Mihaly Csikzentmihalyi and Daniel Goleman have consistently proven the link between Happiness psychology and EQ in creating resilience and long-term success.

A passion for learning ... in other words, an inquiring mind and an interest in ongoing personal growth will help to inspire leadership effectivness and growth in this area. A committment to developing skills (which requires hours of dedication) in your field and setting up a personal goal for excellence is essential to achieving greatness in any given field.

In Joseph Law's book, Living Greatness, Siimon Reynolds gives his tips on creating High Achievement in a challenging business world. He writes:

It's simple to become outstanding in your field, but it's certainly not easy.

Firstly, do something you enjoy. That way long hours won't bother you. The truth is that even if you work really hard in a field, if you're not really into it your results will never be superlative.

Next, dedicate yourself to continuous study in your area. Almost nobody does this. So many people stop studying their field the moment they graduate from their first course in it.

Third, find role models - people who have achieved excellence in your field - and copy what they do. Better yet, ask them to mentor you. You can  literally cut 20 years off your career learning curve if you follow the right role model.

Finally, maintain a philosphy of excellence every day by holding yourself to a world class standard. By simply dedicating yourself to always doing the best you can every day, you will soon shine  far brighter than your competitors.

Circumference has created the Corporate Soiree leadership evenings to help you develop your leadership mastery and 'mastermind' the strategies you can use to achieve greatness in your field. Corporate Soiree are tri-monthly leadership network sessions where you have the opportunity to listen to and learn from successful leaders.

Our first Corporate Soiree evening will be launched by Walter Bellin on November 30th.

Walter Bellin pioneered the field of Personal Development and Corporate Development in Australia. He is an international consultant who regularly consults to the top senior management teams of public and private sector organisations in the areas of coporate development, leading organisational change (specialising in organisational cultural change), leadership development, team building, communication skills, strategic business planning and vision setting. In addition to his work in Australia and the USA, Walter has consulted in seven different countries throughout Asia and Europe.

For more details, please visit our website and download our brochure at: http://circumference.net.au/corporate-programs/corporate-soiree/.

Alternatively, you can register directly for Corporate Soiree below.

Dharma and Dharmikta

Living a life of destiny ...
by Shanti Clements


The word Dharma comes from Sanskrit, which is the oldest language in the world and originated in ancient India. Western linguists confirm that Sanskrit is the root of virtually all known languages.

Dharma comes from the word dhar, which means to "support, uphold, and nourish Dharma" and is the understanding of using appropriate action for any given circumstance. It means "to act in accordance with one's duty".

According to Chin-Ning Chu, each person will have different Dharma depending on their situation in life. For example, a physician's Dharma is to save lives. A teacher's Dharma is to educate others. Eastern spiritual teachers believe that if Dharma is followed, the world will be in harmony with the natural law.

Dharma is the natural law that guides us to recognise at any moment the role that each one of us is playing in life. This short video by Gurumaa defines the difference between Dharma and Dharmikta ...



People who practice Dharma accept life as it comes and perform their duty accordingly. Being true to the duty of that particular role at any given time ... and the very act of accepting and performing that action to the best of our ability ... that is following Dharma. By connecting with your Dharma and Dharmikta, living a life with love, joy and happiness in your heart and soul will help others and bring peace and harmony into the world.

As this ancient Chinese proverb expresses:

If there is light in the soul,

there will be beauty in the person.
If there is beauty in the person,
there will be harmony in the house.
If there is harmony in the house,
there will be order in the nation.
If there is order in the nation,
there will be peace in the world.



Are you living your live according to your Dharma ... practicing Dharmikta in your work, home and relationships?

For some people, learning how to deepen their connection with themselves and 'showing up' more powerfully and passionately is an important step in accepting their Dharma. Circumference has designed Presenting With Presence to help people through this challenging hurdle.

Presenting With Presence is facilitated by Robert Meredith and Barry Quin. It's a great course for anyone who would like to develop better 'UpFront' and Facilitation skills ... and would like to live a life with greatness and more alignment to their unique spiritual purpose. For more infomation, visit: http://circumference.net.au/corporate-programs/presenting-with-presence/

Interesting in enrolling on Presenting With Presence? Register here ...

Welcome to our Global Community

By Shanti Clements

Being new to Social Media, Robert and I have been watching with interest and awe at the international statistics coming our way about Circumference ... Actually, we're gob-smacked at the number of 'hits' to our website and blog. We're so excited we thought we'd share our wonderful news with you!

So far, during the past month, we've had over 420,000 impressions of our Circumference website ... Wow! Thanks so much to everyone for your support! We've also had 811 visits to our Blog - so it's great to know people are interested in our site. We are ecstatic at how many visits we've had from around the globe (please see the snapshots from our Blog visits attached) ...

So thanks to everyone in helping Circumference go international!!!

Warm thanks,
Robert and Shanti

Rumi - the Poet with Soul

By Shanti Clements

Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Balkhī, known to the English-speaking world simply as Rumi, was a 13th-century Persian muslim poet, theologian, and Sufi mystic. His poetry, which in recent times was recorded on CD-rom by Deepak Chopra and friends, evokes the purity of unconditional love, devotion and spiritual unity.

Rumi believed passionately in the use of music, poetry, and dance as a path for reaching God. For Rumi, music helped devotees to focus their whole being on the divine, and to do this so intensely that the soul was both destroyed and resurrected. It was from these ideas that the practice of "whirling" dervishes developed into a ritual form.

Rumi encouraged the practice of samā, listening to music and turning or doing the sacred dance. Samāʿ represents the mystical journey of spiritual ascent through mind and love to the Perfect One. In this journey, the seeker symbolically turns towards the truth, grows through love, abandons the ego, finds the truth, and arrives at the Perfect. The seeker then returns from this spiritual journey, with greater maturity, to love and to be of service to the whole of creation without discrimination with regard to beliefs, races, classes, and nations.

To listen to Rumi's poetry, please visit this website:

http://www.rumi-wayoftheheart.com/

You might also like to view a video of his beautiful poem, Only Breath, below.

If you are interested in learning how to write and express your creativity in a soulful way, please visit our Writing With Soul webpage at http://circumference.net.au/personal-development/writing-with-soul/.
Our next Writing workshop begins October 12th.

With thanks,

The Circumference Team
http://www.circumference.net.au/

It's Not Always a Man's World

By Shanti Clements


A Homage to Two Pioneers of Personal Development:
Susanne Cook-Greuter &
Jane Loevinger







When you read Business literature or research into Ego Development, we often think of well-known writers such as Ken Wilber, Robert Kegan and William Torbert. However, it’s not always a ‘man’s world’. Two women have inspired my knowledge and passion for leadership … Jane Loevinger and Susan Cook-Greuter.

Who are they?
Susanne Cook-Greuter is an author and researcher from Harvard University. She has worked with Robert Kegan and William Torbert – two influential authors in the field of Adult Development and Business. She also designed the Leadership Maturity Framework, based on the ego development model researched by Jane Loevinger in the 1970s.

Jane Loevinger was an academic researcher who developed the first adult model of ego development. She integrated Eastern psychology perspectives of growth within a Western context, challenging the way that psychologists viewed adolescent and adult learning. She was the first female researcher to link cognitive, social and emotional intelligence with levels of consciousness. She also successfully improved on Jean Piaget’s 1932 framework of adolescent development- which had become the basis of Western educational systems in the 20th Century.

Loevinger’s work inspired Ken Wilber’s book, Spectrum of Consciousness, and has become the basis of ego development frameworks in the Western world. Cook-Greuter’s research has also been a major influence to the Corporate world, innovating 21st Century strategies in the way that leadership profiles and executive coaching are used to develop middle managers and leaders.

On a professional level, I’ve gotten to ‘know’ both Jane Loevinger and Susanne Cook-Greuter very well through my Masters and Ph.D research. On a personal level, I’ve learned a lot through Susanne’s mentoring/support of my research project. She taught me a tremendous amount as I used the Leadership Maturity framework and profile (the SCTi-map) to assess and explore the leadership journeys of school principals in NSW.

So thank you, Susanne and Jane! Without you, the fields of Personal and Corporate Development would not have a validated framework for adult ego and leadership development … plus you’ve proven that it’s not always a ‘Man’s world’ in the Corporate domain.

A Poem

Inspired by "Writing With Soul", I wrote this poem about my grandmother, Alice Rajah. She was an amazing woman - mother of ten children, an educator and a passionate advocate of the Mahabharata. I dedicate this poem to my father, John Rajah.

* In 1942 Japan invaded Singapore. My Grandfather's tyre factory was taken over by the Japanese army to process rubber for their military needs. My family's colonial mansion and family jewels were also stolen by the Japanese. This was a shock that my father's aristoractic Ceylonese family never overcame. As a result of the war, my father and his family lived in a small one bedroom apartment for three years. Every night my father and his brothers would sneak into the jungle searching for food, or if they were lucky, my father would be asked by Japanese soldiers in his district to play the piano for their Sunday entertainment in return for one small bag of rice. This would feed the family for at least a week.


A Bag of Rice by Shanti Clements

Brown hands slide over ivory keys.
Fingers that are dark against elephant tusk
Pound furiously, then gently, like a thunderstorm transforming into spring rain

Remember days long ago, when your island was invaded,
Playing piano tunes for homesick Japanese soliders?
Nimble fingers and a contagious grin
Were all you needed to survive.

One bag of rice
A payment for your musical service
Fed a family of twelve
Living in a tiny room.

When food was scarce in the jungle
Or your brothers' nightly search for sustenance
Was hindered by Japanese soldiers,
One bag of rice
Could fed a family of twelve
For one week.

Alice, your mother, would cook
Carefully and reverently the sacred grains.
She would boil up a weak, watery gruel
That fed the family in its pecking order.

First your father,
Your older brothers,
You,
Your sisters,
And then finally
Your mother would eat.
She would wait patiently,
Ensuring each child had eaten their fill
Before venturing timid fingers
Into the remains of drying gruel.

A large woman before the war,
She emerged a sparrow-like figure at its end.
Even when prosperity returned to the family
She remained a prisoner caught in a time-warp.
Eating only, for the rest of her life,
Scraps of rice and curry gravy
Leftover in empty pots.


Do you have poem or a piece of writing you'd like to share? I'd love to read it!
If you'd like to 'tap in' more to your creativity, check out Writing With Soul at http://circumference.net.au/public-programs/writing-with-soul/.

Shanti x

Writing With Soul

By Shanti Clements

Have you ever read a book that is so special that you tell yourself you’re going to have to read it every year? And then you do?

When I first read ‘The Long Quiet Highway’ by Natalie Goldberg, it changed my life. I loved how she not only wrote a beautiful memoir, but also showed the importance of spirituality and writing practice in her life.

I loved her concrete imagery … the sensuousness of her writing … how she could make growing up in American suburbia and eating a pastrami sandwich seem special – almost exotic. I loved how she wrote from her soul and heart … as if the words from her pen were channelled with fresh aliveness.

Natalie Goldberg is a writer and Zen Buddhist. Her spiritual practice brings a fresh approach to writing and offers ‘safety’ to young writers keen to take a ‘leap of faith’ and put pen to paper. She is passionate about the art of writing … asking people to delve into their inner most feelings, sensations and dreams … and from this place, teaches new and experienced writers to develop a daily practice that rejuvenates their soul.

Check out this video about Natalie Goldberg ...


Are you interested in learning how to connect more deeply with your creativity?

Consider Writing With Soul … for more information, go to http://www.circumference.net.au/

Shanti xxx

Benefits of The Meditation Course

by StJohn Miall

I'm very excited about the results of a survey we have just undertaken with the participants of The Meditation Course which Alexia and I have just run for Petrea King's Quest for Life.

This is our first attempt to somehow measure the effects that Meditating is having in the lives of those who have been participating on the course.   We did this by surveying the participants on the first evening of the course, and then again 7 weeks later with the same survey and seeing what difference there is.

We've summarised the results in a little video.

Here, have a look and see what you think:



If you would like to find out more about The Meditation Course, download a brochure, or register for the course, go to the Circumference Website: http://circumference.net.au/public-programs/meditation/

Times with my Teacher

From Robert Meredith 

All in all I spent about two years studying at the feet of my teacher Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. 

Well, not exactly at his feet – for most of the time I was in my room doing what we called ‘rounding’.

A round consisted of twenty minutes of yoga asanas, five minutes of pranayam, thirty minutes of meditation, followed by another five minutes of pranayam, so each round took an hour. We did between twelve and fourteen rounds each day, beginning at about 4 am.

But in the evening after dinner we would meet with Maharshi for teachings, which basically were
question and answer sessions on everything from the development of higher states of consciousness to learned distinctions on the meaning of the Vedas (ancient Sanskrit texts on aspects of spiritual life).

One of the more prosaic subjects that students were always pressing Maharshi for specific guidance on, was the endless debate on whether, as teachers of meditation, we should be vegetarian. This was something that he did not want to be prescriptive about and would generally avoid by saying things like “Mother’s food is best”, (“Why?” “Because it is made with love!)

However, one day when the group just kept coming back to the question and wouldn’t let it go until we had some kind of more definitive answer, Maharshi said this:

“Alright, I shall make one statement about food, and this shall be the end of it.

Bought meat is better than stolen rice!” 

That shut us up. What a great answer! The karma behind the action is the most important factor, not the action itself. I’ve never forgotten that answer, or more importantly, the principle behind it.

Thanks Robert.   Yes, so important that we tune into principles and values for our choices in life.   

How about you?    What have been some of the best teachings you have gained from your teachers over the years?   You are invited to share them here:

Something to Think about

Here's something to seriously think about:

Recently someone told me that on average we think about 45,000 thoughts in any 24 hours.

That's a pretty large amount of thoughts and mind boggling in its own right.

However, what's slightly scary about this is that apparently 90% of those thoughts are the same thoughts we had the day before... and the day before that.

And what's more disturbing is that between a half and two thirds of those thoughts  are negative... you know, the judgments, put-downs, self-esteem underminers etc. - the stuff your inner critic loves to indulge in.

Most of these 45,000 thoughts happen on autopilot and few fully register in our consciousness to the degree that we can do anything about them.   However, these are the sorts of thoughts that start to trigger off anxiety, worry and insecurity in our system, which in turn can trigger off the sympathetic nervous system (our fight/flight/freeze system), which, if it goes unchecked over time, undermines our immune system and can lead to all sorts of conditions such as depression and other sorts of problems, both physically and psychologically.

The other scary thing about all this is that the latest brain research shows that 'Neurons that fire together, wire together' and this means that our habitual thinking patterns tend to get more entrenched as time goes by.   In effect the longer we let this state of affairs continue, the worse it will get.

OK.  That's the bad news.

The good news is that we can definitely do something about this, and developing a regular Meditation practice is one of the very best things we can do.

In Meditation we take a little time each day to become more mindful.   Mindful about what's going on on the inside, and one of the things we become more mindful about in particular is our thinking patterns and the content of our thoughts.  

We also discover through Meditation, that we are not our thoughts, and through developing skills of witnessing we can learn to distance ourselves from our thoughts and thereby their content becomes less important and less impactful in our lives.

And,  there are many other things we can do as part of our meditation practice that when used regularly will start to turn around the negativity cycle described above.   These include deliberately creating space in our meditations for safety and generosity.   This in turn causes new neural connections in the brain and which when practiced regularly over time strengthen themselves, support the parasympathetic nervous system (the opposite of the sympathetic nervous system) and ultimately lead to a happier and more fulfilling life.

How to do this is part of what we teach on The Meditation Course.

So if you think your future happiness and wellbeing is worth investing two and a half hours of your time on a Monday evening over eight weeks, why not come and join us.  

After all, who do you want to be in charge of your future - you or your habitual thinking patterns?

All the best.   StJohn

The next Meditation Course starts on Monday 30th August in Crows Nest.    It's designed for both beginners and those wanting to re-establish their Meditation Practice.

For details, to download a brochure, or to register for the course, visit the The Meditation Course page on our website, http://circumference.net.au/public-programs/meditation/ .

Peanuts...

From StJohn

Hi here's a bit of Charles Schultz' philosophy about what he thought was important in life.   I agree with him, so I made this little movie.    have a look and see if you agree...



Movie reviews and star ratings welcome, and if you really like it, why not share it with your friends.   If you are a facebook person, just click the link below.   Thanks.

Meditation helps Concentration

Here's an interesting article from The Washington Post, citing research from the June edition of Psychological Research on meditation and people's ability to concentrate:

For people who have difficulty staying on task, intensive meditation may help.

So say researchers from several campuses of the University of California, who had 30 participants attend a three-month retreat during which they practiced meditation for about five hours a day. Researchers then periodically tested the participants’ ability to stay focused when confronted with a boring visual task.

That chore was spending 30 minutes merely identifying long and short lines that flashed on a computer screen. Participants were given this test at the beginning, middle and end of the retreat and again five months later. The study also used a control group of 30 people who were familiar with meditation but came to the retreat only for the visual testing.

Participants who lived at the retreat center went without television, phones, the Internet and books. They had instructor-led meditation in the morning and evening, and they spent most of their free time in solitary meditation, said the lead researcher, Katherine MacLean.

Before the retreat began, the experimental and control groups scored similarly in keeping track of long and short lines. As the retreat continued, those in the meditation group performed better. Those in the control group showed some improvement after the first test, but their changes weren’t as great.

Participants who continued to practice meditation daily after the retreat maintained their increased ability to concentrate, whereas those who stopped had a drop-off, the researchers reported.

“The changes that occur [during the meditation retreat] are still with you once you go back to daily life and help you function better,” MacLean said. “Purely mental training can improve your ability . . . to perceive things more clearly, and that can make it easier to pay attention.” The study findings were published in the June issue of Psychological Science.

So there you go... if you would like to improve your concentration skills, why not come and join us on The Meditation Course starting on 30th August.  For more details go to http://circumference.net.au/public-programs/meditation/

Listening

from the writings of Alexia Miall

“With the gift of listening comes the gift of healing"

- Catherine de Hueck Doherty

What does this mean to me?

Listen to my pain and I will be healed

Listen to what others tell me to do about my pain, such as friends, family, medicos

Listen to what I hear on the TV and radio, surely they know what they are talking about

Listen to others who have experienced the same pain

Listen to my inner voice, doesn’t it have all the answers

Listen to the sound of children playing

Listen to what I hear in Nature

the sound of rain falling on the roof

the sound of the crabs in the mud at low tide

the waves crashing on the beach

the wind in the trees

the birds’ morning chorus

the dog barking in the distance

Aah, now I can begin to relax

Now I begin to understand the quote:-

“With the gift of listening comes the gift of healing”

Alexia Miall

Om...

from StJohn Miall

Ever wondered about Om, the universal mantra?

The mantra Om is sacred to Hindus, Sikhs, Jains and Buddhists.   The Mandukya Upanishad describes it as "the eternal word... what was, what is, what shall be, and what is in eternity".

Yoga philosophy teaches that chanting Om will unite you with the cosmos.

The mantra is made up of three separate sounds: "aaa", "uuu" and "mmm". In Vedic chanting it is given four counts: three counts for the "aaauuu" ( combination of "a" and "u"), a half count for the "mmm" and a half count of silence.

Om is also called the mula mantra, meaning "root mantra":  It is often chanted before other mantras and before and after a reading from the Vedas.

The visual elements of the Sanskrit symbol represents the four states of consciousness (1-4) and the world of illusion (5)

1.   Waking (jagrat)
2.   Dreaming (swapna)
3.   Deep Sleep (sushupti)
4.   Transcendental State (turiya)
5.   World of Illusion (maya) that veils true awareness.

source: 'The Mind, Body, Spirit Miscellany' by Jane Alexander.  Duncan Baird Publishers.

So there you have it!   It does seem like you have to wade through the World of Illusion before you can arrive in the Transcendental State.   Any tips or experiences you want to share about that little adventure would be most welcome!

How I got started...

By Robert Meredith

Brighton

I first learnt to meditate in 1969, It was my birthday present to myself when I was living in Brighton, a town on the South coast of England, and working with Apple Theatre, The Beatles theatre company. 

The person who taught me was an Australian woman called Edna Linnell, who I was sure, must have mispronounced the mantra she gave me because of her Aussie accent. In spite of this (or maybe because of it!) my very first meditation was an amazing experience, the beginning of a lifetime practice and an important part of my work. 

The practice that Edna taught me was Transcendental Meditation, brought to the West by the Indian teacher, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. I went on to become a T.M. teacher and national co-ordinator for the T. M. organisation in the UK, and spent many months studying with Maharishi. 

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
with The Beatles

 Maharishi’s intention was to take meditation out of the realm of the mystical and make it accessible to as many people as possible. To do that he gathered around him a group of physicists and medical professionals who carried out the first research into the physiology of meditation, demonstrating objectively the effectiveness of the practice. He also trained teachers and established teaching centres all over the world. 

Literally millions of people have learnt the T. M. technique, and to this day it is the most researched and validated meditation practice available, bringing measureable benefits to virtually every area of life. 

How did you get started?    What prompted you to learn to meditate?    We'd love to hear your stories... feel free to add your comments.

Low flying Pianos

From Jo Flynn

According to a number of my friends and colleagues there are celestial stirrings afoot. Apparently July and potentially quite a bit of August have favourable conditions for not leaving the house in case a piano falls on one’s head from a very great height.

I must admit my learning curve has been ridiculously steep for most of this month and I have found myself grasping at any indication that things might improve. And then I came across this particularly gorgeous offering by a poet I have come to love.

The Well of Grief

Those who will not slip beneath

the still surface of the well of grief

turning downward through its black water

to the place we cannot breathe

will never know the source from which we drink,

the secret water,

cold and clear,

nor find in the darkness glimmering 


the small round coins 


thrown away by those who wished for something else. 


By David Whyte

from Close to Home

And of course….I am now noticing the small round coins. Noticing that I would not choose to miss this adventure. Even if it occasionally feels like drowning….

For all of us who are swimming downward – may we soon be refreshed by that secret water, cold and clear. I shall be drinking mine from a champagne glass in recognition of the bravery and fortitude it required to persevere.

I just hope the piano doesn’t get me first…