WELCOME

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"You have only one job to do. Actually two: relax and enjoy. 

It's a tough  job but somebody's got to do it.

We are designed to be delightfully imperfect.

Any attempt at perfection is not trusting the Beloved. 

So actually you have three jobs: rest, enjoy and be imperfect."

~ Pamela Wilson​

 

Encouraged by the invitation and love from my spiritual teacher Pamela Wilson I have been hosting these gatherings since 2008 to support those  interested in spiritual community. Drawing from diverse traditions and teachings, including Nonduality (Advaita Vedanta), Zen Buddhism, Sufism, esoteric Christianity, the Diamond Approach, contemporary psychology, neuroscience, and secular wisdom, our aim is to create a welcoming and supportive environment to anyone interested.

 

Central to these teachings is a shared understanding that our conventional sense of self has been limited to conditioned patterns of thought, resulting in our focus on the body and mind despite the inherent presence of Spirit within human consciousness. 

 

During our gatherings we aspire to offer ways and means to investigate and explore and transcend these conditioned habits, leading toward the recognition of a deeper spiritual reality that is indescribable, yet life-changing. Some call this self-realization, or awakening to a profound knowing of oneself. Satsang provides a safe space to explore aspects of oneself that hint at the potential for a more loving, kind, and contented existence.

 

In our meetings, we encourage everyone to directly explore their unique naturalness through practices such as stillness, inquiry, teachings, and dialogue. Rather than imposing new beliefs our focus is about encouraging the direct experience of Spirit that is accessible to everyone.

 

You may notice a frequent use of quotations throughout this website. This is intentional, reflecting the idea that while teachers may hail from different traditions or cultures, they often share fundamental insights. The multitude of quotations allows you to explore diverse expressions and find resonance with those that speak most deeply to you

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Dick Stewart

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It's impossible to address even the basics of awakening in simple terms, but I thought this article written by Isira, a teacher from Australia, might be helpful.

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What exactly is awakening?

by Isira

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Awakening has no exact definition. This is because Awakening is about a process of shifting from the unconscious states of the ego driven identity to a conscious and experiencing state of Self as the eternal awareness and Oneness of all life. It is also because it is a state in which we transcend definition and become pure being.

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In the ego driven state a person experiences life dominantly through the constructed identity and perception of being separate from others, and the source of all life.  The individual believes in themselves as an actual personality – a ‘somebody’ defined by their body and events of their life.

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In this state it is the logical left brain activity that is dominant. Life is experienced in dualistic terms: up down, right wrong, me you etc. Consequently, life is constantly defined and labeled. It is believed that life really is what the mind has defined.

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The individual lives under the illusion of the mind, totally unaware that they are directed by a great big load of stories! This plays out through subconscious and unconscious feedback loops.  Hence a person’s life feels like a constant swing between good and bad moments of pleasure and pain. Life is very conditional on circumstances. A person’s happiness is dependent on the circumstances and events of their life. And the person lives in the fog of the mind’s illusion, disconnected from the centred state of oneness in the NOW.

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Awakening occurs through an ongoing process that integrates over many stages. During this process a person begins to experience direct states of awareness in which there is a remembering – a reconnection with knowing the true Self as eternal awareness and being.

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Through various direct activities and experiences (such as meditation) the right brain becomes more active. A gradual state of entrainment between the right and left hemispheres results in deeper and higher conscious activity. The mind becomes very still. There is a deep centredness in the moment of the NOW and the individual enters a state free of the mind’s stories and projections.

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It is then directly experienced and realized that this ‘Self’ is vastly beyond the body-mind of the ‘individual’. This Self is infinite and at One with all things. This Self is both the One which is undifferentiated and the manifestation of every unique expression in the universe. It is like a veil is lifted and life is seen in its full glory. All questions fall away, and along with it, the belief in a constructed identity: a ‘somebody’.

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In this state a profound sense of liberation occurs – there is a realization of the perfection of all things in all moments as being the One Self. Happiness becomes a constant – a realization that the Self is always freedom, peace and love. The person is free of conditional attachments or aversions.

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Awakening occurs in so many varying degrees. It is most common that people experience ‘Satoris’. These are moments that can last a second or a few minutes, hours, days or weeks (sometimes even months)– before the person subsides again into the thinking mind of duality. This ‘rise and fall’ in and out of awareness can repeat itself many times – even over lifetimes before there is a sustained integration in which there is no longer a shift from the state of ever present awareness.

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When we reach a saturated state of integration we become the living, radiant, constant state of Oneness, awareness and LOVE. We simply enter the beingness of life itself – the play and process of consciousness in the ever-present NOW.
May your journey of awakening continue with innocent delight and wonder.

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