I started meditating in 2011, at a frustrating time in my life when pushing ridiculously hard towards my goals just didn’t seem to be getting me there. I joined a 30-day meditation challenge, mostly because I figured it couldn’t hurt. I was surprised to find that by the end of the month, my tendency towards churning, circling thoughts had decreased. Simple truths presented themselves without me having to dig ferociously to find them.
I thought maybe there was something to this mindfulness thing.
Over the years, I’ve explored many different paths. I’ve spent long stretches of time at the Ramana Maharshi ashram in India, focusing on nondual meditation and advaita vedanta. I’ve studied Krishnamurti’s works in Chennai, India and at the centre in Victoria, BC. I do at least one retreat each year, usually in various flavours of Buddhism or pragmatic dharma. It fascinates me to see the overlap between different traditions, and how they give different insight into the same universal truths. Sometimes an idea that made no sense at all will resonate deeply when explained from another perspective.
I’m grateful to all the teachers, formal and informal, who’ve nudged me into new discoveries along the way. My intention is to integrate what I’ve learned into my way of being, so that I can in turn pass along these discoveries to those who might find them helpful.