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Posts Tagged ‘meditation in Manhattan’

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.” Mahatma Gandhi

December 2nd, 2010 No comments
Sarah Frank’s West End High School, Manhattan

After the healthfair on July 29, Sarah and Nicole Riley, the assistant Dean, arranged for a regular weekly meditation class in Nicole’s Family Group. The students were less than enthusiastic, passively aggressive, at best they exuded an atmosphere of collective indifference. A good third of those who came, slouched or crashed out on their desks.
After four weeks, Nicole said that even those who appeared to be meditating weren’t.
After about six weeks, there was a sudden shift, a few actually said they liked meditating, and one young man, said he’d meditated in the park at 4 am one morning, the morning Nicole observed he hadn’t attended school.
Fast forward to now.
The Family Group are meditating apart from one or two. Their whole demeanor, their attitude to has changed, they loved meditating and do it really well. Abijah, who was one of the last to get it, came up to Mohammed, one of the most influential leaders amongst the students, and when Mohammed told him he meditated every day since the healthfair, Abijah spoke proudly about his own meditation success.
One young woman student, a mother of a two year old, spoke of how she went for a job interview, that she felt nervous in the waiting area, but practiced Sahaja Meditation there and then by focussing her attention on the top of her head. She said it didn’t work perfectly, just a bit. But she was offered the job, and promptly turned it down because she realized the boss was a really horrible person! What courage.
At the Thanksgiving lunch last week, Mark, a math teacher, said the word now was in the school that Sahaja Meditation is a really cool thing, and he asked if we could come to his family group.
But the real success in all of this is that the members of Nicole’s Family Group, know through personal experience that this technique has given them true inner strength, mental resilience, self respect and dignity, a platform from which they have already started to improve their lives.
“You get the aroma of rejuvenation and relaxation” – Kevin S on Sahaja Meditation at Aviation HS yesterday in Queens, NY

Sahaja Meditation in Manhattan

March 27th, 2009 No comments

Where:

The Center for Arts Education (between 7th and 8th Avenues in Manhattan)
225 West 34th Street
11th floor

When:

On Tuesday or Wednesday evenings at 7pm

How long are the classes? Around an hour.

Cost: Sahaja Meditation is

The Center for Arts Education (between 7th and 8th Avenues in Manhattan)
225 West 34th Street
11th floor

How long does it take? The classes last around an hour.

Cost? There is no charge for Sahaja Meditation – all classes are offered by expert volunteers.

Hugely enjoyed Sahaja Meditation in Manhattan last night

March 26th, 2009 No comments

It’s led by the wonderfully personable Nilgun Bhandari. In the last two weeks, even after nearly twenty years of this practice, I’ve learned/been reminded a) how to remain in thoughtless awareness while meditating, and b) that I am not as much, “the detached witness of love and compassion” that I so regularly advocate to others, as I think I am. Back to the drawing board on that one, but at least it makes it worth getting out of bed for in the mornings, when most old boys of my vintage are living out lives of playing golf and waiting to die.

Ooops, mustn’t say die, nobody dies around here any more, they pass, pass on or some such, sounds more iike a problem of the lower regions than permanent disappearance from this mortal coil*.

Should I start a campaign to resurrect the word ‘die’ as in to kick the bucket, snuff it, fall off one’s perch, or what have you. It’s a perfectly good word, everybody knows what it means, and who, in their right minds would want to hang around here forever anyway? God help us.

Anyway, if you get a chance, stroll along to:

The Center for Arts Education (between 7th and 8th Avenues in Manhattan)
225 West 34th Street
11th floor

On Tuesday or Wednesday evenings at 7pm and spend a pleasant hour learning an enjoyable technique that works, if you do it, of course – see above. (nothing works if you don’t do it).

*Derived from 16th Century English, “coil” refers to tumults or troubles. Used idiomatically, the phrase means “the bustle and turmoil of this mortal life.” [1] “Coil” has an unusual etymological history. It was coined repeatedly; at one time people used it as a verb to mean “to cull,” “to thrash,” “to lay in rings or spirals,” “to turn,” “to mound hay” and “to stir.” As a noun it has meant “a selection,” “a spiral,” “the breech of a gun,” “a mound of hay”, “a pen for hens”, and “noisy disturbance, fuss, ado.”[2] It is in this last sense, which became popular in the 16th century, that Shakespeare used the word.

In fact, “mortal coil”—along with “the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,” “to sleep, perchance to dream” and “ay, there’s the rub”—is part of Hamlet’s famous “To be or not to be” speech. “Coil” is no longer used as a synonym for “disturbance.”

terrific free meditation class in Manhattan

March 16th, 2009 No comments

Sahaja Meditation

Tuesdays & Wednesdays at 7:00 p.m.

The Center for Arts Education
225 West 34th Street (11th floor), bet 7th & 8th Aves on the north side of the street
The outside of the building says 14 Penn Plaza & there are 2 American flags in front

Note: Use this code in the elevator to go to the 11th floor: 11-10-7-9-11

The classes last around and hour to an hour and a half, and you will quickly learn simple techniques to:

a) deal with stress

b) reduce the unnecessary thinking in your head.

c) be in the present (everybody talks about it, few can really do it)

d) experience joy in your day to day life.

I highly recommend you give it a shot.