A friend of mine has formed a company called Headspace, which attempts to make meditation relevant for our times.
He has stripped away all negative, new-age connotations - joss sticks, sitting cross-legged, making strange noises - and devised something far more practical, and far less uncool.
What he has kept is a sense that meditation can have a really positive impact on our lives.
Below is my account of the day. I hope you find it interesting.
I had never done anything like this before. Before going to the Headspace event on Saturday, my perceptions about meditation were very limited – it involved sitting cross legged on a mat, in a room filled with incense, making am “om” noise. I also had some belief that, through the process, you would empty your mind of all thoughts.
So I arrived at the BAFTA building on Piccadilly ill-informed, but curious. To be honest, my main motivation in going was to spend my Saturday doing something so very out of the ordinary. I guess I also hoped that, somehow, it might rid me of the dreaded writer’s block that, as a freelance writer, afflicts me on an all too regular basis.
The first thing to say is that Headspace is as far away from my preconceptions about meditation as it is possible to be. I was a little daunted by the idea of spending between 10am – 5pm in an auditorium. I needn’t have been – what I got was a day’s workshop that was both engaging and fascinating.
Much of the success of the day was down to Andy, our lama - or Buddhist teacher - for the event. Andy is a fantastic and charismatic performer. If he’s not juggling, he’s cracking a joke or reciting an anecdote. At one stage, Andy wanted to know how the day’s first meditation had left people feeling. “Hot and sick” someone replied (OK, so the experience isn’t for everyone). Andy pondered for a moment before turning to Rich, the brains behind the marketing, and saying, ironically, “Rich, any chance we can get that quote on the website?”
On another occasion, someone asked whether it may be possible to put on excess weight if one spends too much time meditating. Ignoring the slightly peculiar nature of this question, Andy embarked on an anecdote about a lama who became diabetic through lack of exercise. As a result, he was put on a speed-walking programme and would conduct his teaching powering through the Tibetan landscape, with his followers desperately trying to keep pace. It summons a quite ludicrous image.
This is typical of Andy – he is not too proud to laugh at the more absurd side of meditation. Yet he is passionate about his craft and is compassionate towards his audience. You can’t fail to warm to him, and as a result you want to give this meditation lark a right good go.
So it was that about 150 of us sat bolt upright, placed our hands on our laps and began to meditate in unison. Andy guided us through the 15 minute process – of which there were four or five during the day. During this time, we were asked to focus on our breathing, scan the length of our body to register any small sensations, question whether our bodies felt light or heavy, and so on.
I can only say that the result of this process was surprisingly powerful. So what did the experience of meditation involve for me? Allowing me for a moment the type of mumbo-jumbo parlance that Andy and Rich would no doubt frown upon, I would describe it as follows: it is a process which promotes heightened physical and mental feelings, while at the same time filtering many of life’s troubles and anxieties which, you begin to realise, really don’t matter.
Part of the day involved a walking meditation exercise – yes, seriously – which I conducted around Green Park. The exercise turned a saunter through the park’s space into a trip around an amusement park. You feel more aware of the vibrancy of the colours in the trees, the twittering of the birds, the harmonious interaction of everything around you. Everything is, well, rather beautiful.
The experience of meditation brought to my mind the famous Juvenal quote when he addressed what people should wish for from life: “It is to be prayed that the mind be sound in a sound body.” I think that meditation is striving for the same thing. In today’s age, everyone seems to rush around like a blue-arsed fly. But isn’t this state the only thing that really matters?
I’m convinced that meditation, the Headspace way, could be very beneficial to many people. Through a 10 – 15 minute process, the exclusion of trivial matters induces a sense of calm and introduces a different perspective on your life.
I’d definitely recommend going along to the next event – it’s great fun, and seven hours really could change your life.
You can find out more about Headspace here.
No comments:
Post a Comment