As taught by Mataji (Swami Shantananda), either Meditation and Mindfulness , or Resilience, is a game-changer in your life.
Meditation and Mindfulness
The Meditation and Mindfulness course gives you methods to establish your own practice of still-mind meditation, and to be mindful in everyday life. In this era, the biopsychosocial effects of meditation have been scientifically researched, and it is unquestionable that undertaking the practices as suggested will have the effect of lowering your pulse and very likely lowering blood pressure. You would expect to become able to relax your muscles and relieve body tension. With these outcomes, we tend to be less uptight in relationships, and handle social situations more easily.
Beyond those undoubted benefits, still-mind meditation can eventually take one to the deeper outcomes written about for centuries – millennia – by traditional meditators: a very easeful sense of the connectedness of all, and a comfortable acceptance of our place in the whole. And beyond even that, an experience of Being that is not a product of the thinking mind.
Resilience
Resilience means different things to different people. In brief, here it means not being like a ping pong ball when any passing perception passes your mind. It means looking at the way you think ( ! ) to see there is anything about thinking itself that can be more realistic and useful. Meditation is an enormous help to stop the ping pong mind and, as mentioned, the long term effects are truly life-changing and profound.
What lurks below messes up your mindfulness
However, for most people, meditation does not reach the profound depths for many, many years. In the meantime, meditation is sometimes more like a warm bath – it makes you feel better and let go of anger and worry for a while. But then, before you know it, there you are reacting in the same old way, over and over, and then you meditate to soothe yourself. Wouldn’t it be good to figure out once and for all where the anger or worrying is coming from? Resilience as taught by Mataji helps you recognise the topology of your mind so that you know in advance what the bumps and obstacles are, and how to manage them.
The Resilience program is cognitive (that is, you’re allowed to think!) while the Meditation and Mindfulness course is about dropping thinking for a while. In the long run, still-mind meditation is absolutely the best! In the early stages, each has a role, and, ideally, it would be in everyone’s interest to do both.
About Mataji
BA Grad Dip Arts (Social Studies) Postgrad Dip Health Psychology
Personal Meditation Practice – 35 years
Teaches Meditation, Mindfulness,
Trains teachers of Meditation and Mindfulness
Member Meditation Australia
When teaching resilience, Mataji brings the insights of 35 years of profound meditation along with an understanding of the cognitive and biological processes of stress.
What People have said about the Resilience program
Joëlle , Lawyer
(has done only the Resilience program, has formerly had counselling elsewhere)
Getting valuable tools to leave old habits and replace them with new habits that are nourishing, non-reacting and compassionate – of myself and others. I’ve already experienced how different it feels to step back and breathe – and to be able to see my old reactive patterns and not to succumb to them. It is truly empowering! It gives me a whole new outlook and an opportunity to let the filter (black box) and rule book go – the “should”, etc. and respond to situations in a more present way. These are tools I’ll have for the rest of my life! Thank you so much
Amie, Social Worker
(has completed the Meditation and Mindfulness program and several meditation retreats prior to the Resilience program)
This course allowed me to begin to see my “rocks under the blanket”, those hidden mental processes that hinder my flexibility or resilience. The realism profile developed by Mataji allowed me to delve deep into long established mental process that I was previously unaware of. This course is a rare opportunity to experience a parallel process; with Mataji who shares her own life experience of doing this self-reflection and exploration work.
I found the course challenging, but the spaciousness that came from becoming aware and letting go outweighs the difficulties.
Highly, highly recommend! I have had years practising psychological counselling which didn’t get me as far as 6 weeks with this resilience course!
Thank you Mataji
Alison, Library Assistant
(has previously completed the Meditation and Mindfulness program, and has formerly had counselling elsewhere)
The resilience course has profoundly changed my day-to-day life for the better. It is a very practical course with time for discussion and practice, and the initial quiz gave real insights into my personal patterns. Mataji explained, with wisdom and common sense, the processes I use every day to twist my experiences into my thought patterns, and vice-versa, and how I can untwist them and be OK with reality. I can now see the patterns in the way I think and act and I can set them aside. My family notice that I have a lot more patience for the irritations and frustrations of family life.
Thank you very much, Mataji