At Nine Lives Meditation, I offer a guided and gentle approach, that is secular, non-dogmatic and has no religious affiliation.  

I am trained in a trauma informed, present-day framework that is rooted in Insight Awareness Meditation, also called Vipassana Meditation by renowned psychologists and meditation teachers, Tara Brach and Jack Kornfield. I am taught through the MMTCP (Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Training Certificate Program).

From beginners to advanced, there is no “right way” to meditate!

There are many different types of meditation and this is a weekly group setting. Some prefer to meditate alone and in silence. Here we have moments of silence with intermittent prompts in a warm and welcoming space. 

Meditating in a community can be very useful, especially for those who find it challenging to stick to a routine on your own. It is also pleasant and nice to be in the company of others doing the same thing together. Group meditation is also known, similar to prayer, to send more healing out to the world through the positive and loving subtle energy fields the practitioner develops. Research from institutions such as Cambridge University, Harvard Medical School, NIH National Library of Medicine, Mount Sinai have abstracts of conducted studies into the benefits of community available on line.

Vietnamese  monk Thich Nhat Hanh firmly believed that the collective energy of community helps individual transformation and is essential to personal growth stating that individual effort alone has its limitations. https://www.parallax.org/mindfulnessbell/article/the-venerable-thich-nhat-hanh-and-the-plum-village-community-of-engaged-buddhism

What is Vipassana Meditation?

Here we use what is called Vipassana or Insight awareness meditation that teaches you how to “see things as they are,” We train the mind through simple concentration techniques that cultivate a calm mind and body, traditionally paying attention to the breath, the sensations created in the breathing body, noting without judgement thoughts that arise and float away. The breath is the traditional anchor in the body, where you can return your concentration after it has slipped away. Jack Kornfield says the mind has no pride and indeed it wanders endlessly for that is the nature of the mind. 

For those who have difficulties with the breath there are alternatives, such as concentrating on sensations in the feet, or the feel of your chest rising and falling, or sounds you hear. You gradually learn and become more aware that everything in life is temporary and is in continual flux. The sun rises and sets, each day a little differently. The sky is constantly changing, the bird is chirping, flowers blossom, seasons change, everything changes, the galaxy expands, stars come and go, just like the breath. 

Some of the core concepts that I apply to my teachings include:

Acceptance

We cultivate compassion and kindness towards our meditation and ourselves, acknowledging all that arises as our thoughts come and go, removing judgements.

Transformation and impermanence 

We learn to accept that everything in life is constantly changing, evolving, arriving and disappearing. We quietly observe our own minds where thoughts come and drift away.

Clarity

The road to wisdom is understanding the difference between the illusions of our imaginative perceptions and learning experientially without adding interpretations. 

Here, we can achieve this by observing the body, and distinguishing reality from “trance,” a state of mind coined by Tara Brach that refers to when we are lost in thought and reactive emotions rather than living in reality with clarity of mind. Our society has taught us to live in the illusion of a separate self where the ego interferes, preventing us from seeing things exactly as they are. 

With “Insight Meditation”, we stick to observing what is happening in the present moment and begin to understand the true nature of existence. This evokes a gradual awakening that can change one’s understanding of one’s life, thus living more in balance with ourselves and the natural world. 

With time, a deeper truth reveals itself and this practice is focused on simply observing and naming our thoughts, our emotions and noticing how our bodies feel as we train ourselves to live in the presence of each moment, and simply accepting what is. Given our minds’ naturally wandering tendencies, this is quite a radical way to come into awareness of how our bodies feel and react to our thinking when judgement is removed.