Foreword 'Inside Meditation' by Valerie James

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Inside Meditation - In Search of the Unchanging Nature Within

Who has the time to meditate? Across the globe our conventional boundaries are dissolving and economies are in flux. Virtual organisations and new technologies mean that our certainty about how everything in life works dissolves too. The world is no longer linear and predictable and this gives rise to ambiguity and anxiety.

There are at least two natural human reactions to such spectacular uncertainty. One is to seek absolute assurance. The other is to search for meaning in order to cope in a world of ever-increasing complexity. Alexander Filmer-Lorch’s book is a beautifully timed publication. He teaches us how to find that still point in the centre of ourselves so that we can deal with whatever life throws at us.

Alexander is a virtuoso of movement. A child born with physical abnormalities, he turned these to advantage, dancing with a major European ballet company by the time he was seventeen. He went on to develop innovative syntheses of schools of yoga, Pilates, cranio- sacral and somato-emotional release. In my first encounter with him I physically expanded – my body rediscovered movements on his Gyrotonic machine that I had not been able to do for some 20 years. I had had an amateur training in contemporary dance, Graham technique, and in minutes Alexander had me, effortlessly, back into a level of movement my body had long forgotten. I loathe gym machines but this was working dynamically in all three dimensions with a master practitioner who knew exactly how to unlock me. This was joyful flight!

Alexander is also a sage of the dynamic between body and mind. Now he has written a manual in which he shares his thirty years of deep study and practice of integrating ‘self’ on all planes. Reader beware – this book is not for complete beginners – there is much literature already available for the novice. However, if you are serious about deepening your awareness and all aspects of your life, then you will find an immensely practical resource for a lifelong journey. You will find many inter-linked lessons for finding ‘the unchanging nature within’.

All of Alexander’s learning has taken place, and continues to do so, in the crucible of his own heart, mind, body and spirit. Despite the many schools he has learnt from, he is no eclectic practitioner – Alexander integrates his learning. This means he does not just pull out one theorem, exercise or another as the mood or situation suits. He has a deep emotional, intellectual and physical understanding of the principles from many schools of thought and practice. By exquisite discernment, he brings together inter-relating aspects into powerful new forms. He has achieved this with his version of dynamic myo-fascial flow yoga, working with the body and mind in refined attunement, taking the benefits to new levels – using methods, which suit the western body. I have witnessed the tremendous regard that yoga teachers have for Alexander.

As a corporate psychologist, a key clinical interest of mine is: how do some people learn to thrive, not only survive, in extreme situations? I work with leaders who need to find ways of transforming organisations and people despite greatly reduced resources in ever more turbulent times. As a professional mediator, I observe that those people who are able to tolerate multiple realities are those who are more likely to find creative solutions. I cannot help but notice that those who have a strong, integrated sense of self have a great advantage. The big question is: how does that strength come about?

The research that has come out of the Mind and Life Institute1 arose from the combined efforts of an international community of neuroscientists together with advanced practitioners of Tibetan Buddhist meditation. Their findings reveal that the East has much to teach the West in advancing our knowledge of neuroplasticity and inner balance. It is crucial that we heed these ideas if we are serious about bringing about peace in turbulent times. So many people clamour for a more humane world2. A fundamental and recurring theme is that we need to let go of certitude, surrender to ambiguity and suspend our overly critical minds. Only then will we see the patterns emerge that will guide us to each next step.

Like those scientists from the Mind and Life Institute, and psychologists such as Professor Marvin Levine3, Alexander interprets ancient wisdom for contemporary Westerners facing new challenges. He has been putting this wisdom into practice in his daily life for thirty years. This cross-cultural integration benefits all groups. It is precisely the blend of modern science with foreign knowledge paradigms that creates the potential for new forms of knowledge. This is new knowledge that goes far beyond the sum of the parts of these unusual bedfellows. It takes the lifetime dedication of a practitioner like Alexander to gift us with practical, but deep, teachings.

The point of meditation is not to escape reality or become a superb meditator – but to lead a fully conscious and rich life - one lived with self-awareness, objectivity, equanimity and compassion. A life that offers something back to humanity. Alexander’s approach focuses on just that. He does this with unquenchable curiosity, lightness and infectious humour. My hope is that you become infected with the desire to live a more conscious, more kindly, more fully lived life.

Valerie James -
London, England 2012

1 The Mind and Life Institute brings together many specialists across the globe including: psychiatrists, experimental psychologists, cognitive scientists, epistemologists, theologians, Buddhist monks, affective neuropsychologists, neurobiologists, etc. See for example, Destructive Emotions and how we can overcome them, A dialogue with the Dalai Lama narrated by Daniel Goleman. Bloomsbury, London, 2003 and Healing Emotions: conversations with the Dalai Lama on Mindfulness, Emotions, and Health (ed) Daniel Goleman, Shambala, Boston 1997

2 Dr Karen Armstrong was awarded the TED prize for her International Charter of Compassion. Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life, Bodley Head, London 2011

3 Professor Martin Levine, The Positive Psychology of Buddhism and Yoga: Paths to a Mature Happiness, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers, London 2000

'Inside Meditation' - Book Review

Joanne Sarah Avison on Inside Meditation

There are many books about things. They contain ideas from the author or wonderfully woven stories of fiction and inspiration. Others might list facts and instructions, or present information visually and intellectually – about their subject.

There are fewer books that can actually cause the reader to change how they see themselves and the world around them – and fewer still that can provide the tools to sustain that change. Inside Meditation is one of those rare pieces of writing that simply changes you. The paradox innate to its genius – is that, once animated by you, it can ultimately lead you to discovering that which is not subject to change, within yourself.

It has been a privilege to be a close friend of Alex over many years and watch him in action, developing and expanding his unique ability to express this work. To see it encapsulated in such clear and beautiful language is like holding treasure. For a thirsty being, the gift of a fruit and the taste of a sweet juice is heaven sent. This book is an orchard of fruit trees that has an endless supply of sweet juice – if only we take the care to pick it...and taste it and – literally and symbolically – juice it.

Inside Meditation has life within its pages. The author has lived the life of the work himself over many years of dedication and it is the concentrated essence of that experience. It is a body of work that is presented with clarity – while it contains some of the deepest mysteries about the being of human beings. You, the reader, are invited to join in with this experience and become part of that body of work. It is not an intellectual “download” to be read and learned. It is a profoundly beautiful invitation to walk an authentic path to your Self – while you live your life. Indeed, it deepens and expands the experience of every day life itself. Eventually that becomes the teacher.

Inside Meditation is also a lot of fun! It is written with a lightness of heart despite the very serious nature of the work. That is what makes it so delightful to be in the classroom with Alex. There is as much laughter as there is quiet, inexorable change – accumulating gently over time. This book is like that, if you allow yourself the time to read a little here and a little

there and engage in the exercises. It will not do it for you – it can – and does – provide an authentic and safely lit pathway to walk for yourself, to the point that you choose to travel.

That pathway glows with Grace – and this book is a grace field that will expand with you as you work with it. The true magic lies in the questions it invites you to ask, the observations it encourages you to make and the experiences it invites you to accumulate. The rest just happens as it does.

My profound gratitude to you Alex for the treasure your work has been in my life – and for the difference it has made to me. That means the difference it has made directly and indirectly to all those I have worked with. In Native American wisdom, the Spider is the bringer of writing, of words expressed on a page, like a web woven in an exquisite matrix. May the Grace and elegance with which you have woven these threads inspire many people to see and treasure the jewels at every connection – and share them in the same spirit.

Thank you, with love, Joanne Sarah

Rumi poem on 'being'

No intellect denies that you are,

but no one gives completely into that.

This is not a place where you are not,

yet not a place where you are seen.

If our intellect is utilised accordingly it initially turns into one of the most useful faculties in regards to our own possible inner evolution, as well as changing our state of being. But only initially.

As Rumi teaches, it is a matter of fact that the intellect can't deny that you are, yet there are hesitations in its ability of understanding to except this as an actual fact or the truth. It easily can rationalise that we are our physical body, or that we are our thoughts depending where we have placed our feeling of 'I', yet it is not in the potential of the intellect to be able to grasp and understand the sheer dimension of the idea that you are. 

Only when we rise above our intellect and formative way of thinking, will we be able to start understanding what this means, i.e. we have to rise onto another level of consciousness that allows us to experience the greatness and simplicity of that you are. It is our intellect, which will be required to get us there initially. This takes place by means of exploring and studying all sorts of different influences, concepts and systems until we come across specific universal teachings that work with the idea of self-remembering as well as ideas of different states of consciousness.

After that conscious effort has to be implemented to try to remember to remember to self-remember. Once we have accumulated a sufficient amount of imprints of the state of self-remembering, we will realise that this is not a place where we are not, and we experience that we have become so much more than we had been before. We have risen above a great amount of inhibiting limitations. 

Also we realise that this state of being is not the place where we will be seen, we finally have completely given into that.

Copyright © Alexander Filmer-Lorch May 2012 all rights reserved 

On another note, the content of the article following this link highlights the increasing interest many people have in universal teachings.    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17997163  

 

 

 

Rumi - reading between the lines

There is a channel between voice and presence,

a way where information flows.

Disciplined silence the channel opens.

With wondering talk it closes.

'...between voice and presence' - The moment you not only think about the meaning of this succession of words, but contemplate on them through your feeling faculty, you instantly will be drawn into the deeper meaning of this teaching. You will discover, that the term 'voice' stands for our mind and it's activity that manifests as a constant thought process to which we usually attach our sense of self or feeling of 'I'. Furthermore, you might realise that the term 'Presence' refers to our state of being or awareness and its inherent capacity to simply perceive the 'Isness' of things. If you start looking at both terms from a neutral state of mind point of view you will understand that together they create a state in which both oppose each other, whilst being completely unaware of each others individual existence. This subsequently will take you to the idea that within their silent dynamic they manifest a horizontal scale in which the 'voice' stands for past and future and the 'presence' for the actual 'now' or a given present moment in time. 'Voice' and 'Presence' in their linear or two-dimensional  interaction contain the whole range of manifestations of consciousness in man's ordinary waking state of everyday life that unfolds along this horizontal scale.

'...there is a channel' - a window or gateway leading to unprecedented opportunities that might transcend that state of  friction and frees us from this two-dimensional state of perception. Nothing much can happen or change within a two-dimensional interaction that consists of two opposing forces, as long as there is a third quality that carries the potential to neutralise this static state. This third quality or force lies dormant in form of a channel between voice and presence. The channel has to be understood as an opening, an opening of possibilities or potentialities that can be accessed via '...a way where information flows'- 'a way' can be symbolising a process, path, approach or an environment within which there is the potential to evolve, to transform or change. '...where information flows' - symbolises 'Great Ideas' or 'Universal Teachings' that are not produced by mind created life, but are constantly surrounding us unrecognised. This flow of information or stream of 'Great Ideas' is freely available in abundance, yet is rarely recognised as such. It's specific scent only can be appreciated by the one that has refined his sense of perception that is not entirely based on giving attention to the incoming impressions of life but can look beyond this linear view of perception.

'...Disciplined silence the channel opens' is the key that opens the door to 'a way where information flows'. '...disciplined...' stands for conscious effort and regular practice without expectations. '...silence...' describes the method that tames the voice. Sitting motionless in silence by means of conscious effort while being drawn into the gaps between our thoughts, will open the channel i.e. consciousness will expand the moment the 'voice' and the 'presence' are in perfect balance, an opening or spaciousness in which both are equally content in their existence. Then this channel will open and connect us to a vertical scale under which we are in-formation, hence a process of change or transformation that is graciously facilitated by the meaning of 'Great Ideas' and Grace that reach us through this vertical scale that manifests within the spaciousness of our thought patterns, hence a state of absence of thoughts in which simply nothing happens.

'...with wondering talk it closes' - the moment the voice in our head becomes active our consciousness will diminish again and will be confined and caught within the linear dynamic of opposing forces '...voice and presence'.

Copyright © Alexander Filmer-Lorch April 2012 all rights reserved

Thoughts on Identification

There are two different kinds of identification. We can identify an object like a tree, a person or a chair without attaching any connotations to it, as well as identification can be seen as a psychological process whereby the subject imitates and assimilates an aspect, a property or an attribute of the other and transforms wholly or partially after the model the other provides. The initial development of personality is constituted and specified by means of a series of identifications. That is I repeatedly identify myself with a characteristic of my father and gradually assimilate this particular characteristic into my personality by means of reinforcing the particular information into the mental makeup through repeated association and imitation.

Simultaneously with the acquirement of personality our history develops as well as that the identification with our physical body increases to such an extend, that the physical body becomes un-separable from our actual sense of self. The trinity that is comprised of our individual personality, the history it can reflect on and the identification with our physical body is the ideal foundation for the growth of imagination. This is that external influences are not perceived by us as such as they actually appear or what they truly represent, but are more or less enveloped in the story we attach to them or imagine them to be, i.e. we more and more will perceive the world and others through our own lenses that are subjective opposed to objective lenses that would be more conducive for establishing a realistic orientation and objective in life.

 

In most circumstances identification leads to loss of true sense of self and the connection with our centre of gravitas, that is we become what we associate most with. Hence we are caught in a two dimensional interaction between sense of self as subject and external impression or what we do as the object that particular dynamic creates a so-called binary condition or state. The moment we identify with pure awareness within, which is without structure, shape, form or motion - identification annihilates itself due to the fact that there is no concept, idea or connotation attached to pure awareness. How can one possibly identify with something formless that simply only perceives the ‘Isness’ of things.

This brings us back to the great philosophical idea of placing ones sense of ‘I’ or placing ones voice. Wherever we place our sense of ‘I’ or our voice most mechanically that is what we will identify with and become. So we have to step out of the binary state by further removing ourselves from what we have become to be able to see what lays in front of us. This takes us into a three dimensional dynamic, or a so-called ternary condition or state. The ternary state puts us under a much better condition in which we can consciously place our sense of ‘I’ or our voice. This cant be done mechanically or in a state of identification. Consciously placing ones sense of ‘I’ or voice into our true sense of self or centre of gravitas evokes a transformative process that is manifesting as an active potential or so called quaternary condition or state, in which something magical can happen.

We only need to be attentive as well as remember where we have placed or are placing our sense of ‘I’ right now and we instantly will gain more freedom of choice. Hence we choose to identify with our true sense of self or with a multitude of possibilities in form of external impressions and events that surround us and meet us. 

First published: 29 March 2012

Copyright © Alexander Filmer-Lorch 2012 all rights reserved

The necessity of a Teacher

There is a strong preconceived idea - deeply engrained in our western way of thinking - which triggers our imagination due to our lack of knowledge, which has largely been fed by what we have read in the press or what we might have observed in friends or colleagues who are followers of different far eastern belief systems. 

The sixties with the hippy movement and the seventies with the so called “Eco’s”, played a vital part in the creation of a somewhat negative image regarding the new wave of spirituality which had started to spill over into the West. Most of these people were categorised as lunatics or airy-fairies, treated as outcasts in our society and not taken seriously. It took about half a century and a lot of effort and patience on behalf of the highly respected Dalai Lama, along with the endorsement of celebrities such as Richard Gere who openly lived a Buddhist life, for Buddhism to find acceptance and respect in our society. 

As mentioned in the introduction of this book, meditation and mystic teachings have never been a natural part of our modern culture, our upbringing and our conditioning in the West. The words such as guru or master have different connotations attached to them. Unfortunately, many gurus and masters themselves played a role in feeding a negative image by abusing their charismatic powers over their followers, which, in some cases, led to shocking revelations and scandals. In most people’s opinion, the words guru or master describes someone who has absolute control over another. 

Once yoga found acceptance and became the latest fashion in the lives of celebrities – soon to be followed by the average person - it was only a question of time before yoga turned into a profitable global business. 

Today, most people have a very positive attitude towards yoga; they enjoy attending classes and can experience the benefits of practicing yoga on a personal level. However, in this new world of yoga practice, there is little understanding that yoga was actually originally developed to channel our body’s energies and our minds towards meditation. Few regular yoga classes include refined meditation techniques, largely because most yoga teacher training courses typically only touch on meditation at a very superficial level. Therefore, most yoga teachers have not received any real training in the science of meditation themselves. 

It requires a lot of effort and practice to establish a neutral or objective state of mind. We are usually too close to ourselves or we are standing in our own way to be able to relate things to a greater perspective 

Additionally, without the support and facilitation of a teacher, the attraction and gravitational pull of our meditation practice in itself, might not be strong enough to sustain the initial interest and fascination of our mind over a longer period of time. Soon the mind will become distracted by other more powerful attractions and temptations in life, the mind will then happily allow you to sacrifice the idea of meditation in order to replace it with something more satisfying. That’s part of the nature of our mind.

The majority of people who chooses to follow a path of meditation does so to find a different meaning in their lives. Some might have reached a particular turning point and started asking different questions, whist others may be attracted by the science and psychology behind meditation, which offers a promising tool to further, evolve themselves within. 

Others want to meditate in order to come to terms with upsetting experiences from their past, dealing with conflict or grief. Many people choose to learn meditation to help balance their mood swings, control their emotions or simply because they want a break from the busy chatter in their head. 

Before committing to learn from a new teacher. People are advised to ask as many questions as they may have - just for their own peace of mind. If a yoga or meditation teacher were asked how he has developed his teachings, the appropriate answer would be that he hasn’t developed any of what he teaches himself. Instead he should attribute all his acquired knowledge and experience to his own teachers and sources of inspiration.

So in the beginning there may be no need to start with a teacher. But when one reaches a point where one wants to deepen ones meditation practice, a series of lessons or classes with a teacher are highly recommended. If one wants to explore, study and practice what the whole field of meditation has to offer, then working with a teacher becomes necessary and unavoidable.

Abstract: 'Inside Meditation - in search of the unchanging nature within'

First published: 05 March 2012

Copyright © Alexander Filmer-Lorch March 2012 all rights reserved

Back at work with a thought on Identification

Finally, the manuscript of the book is completed and has found its way to the editor who will have a go with it, before it will be back on my desk for further improvements, which takes us to the theme of identification. Identification can be defined in two ways; on the one hand we can identify an object such as a chair, a tree or a person, like I became thoroughly identified with the process to completing the manuscript. On the other hand we can identify with the characteristics of an object, such as the characteristics of ones mother or father. 

This second kind of identification is a psychological process whereby the subject assimilates an aspect of the other, like a property or attitude, wholly or partially and makes it part of its mental makeup. hence it is by means of a long series of identifications that the personality is constituted, specified and established. In other words we are an accumulation of bits and peaces of characteristics of others around and close to us that we non-consciously have acquired and assimilated by means of identification., i.e. we are a bit of each of them.

So the process of identification more or less can be seen as wherever we externally place our feeling of 'I' non-consciously and by means of habit - is where we will identify with. The moment we fully place our feeling of 'I' into our internal sense of 'Self', identification disappears. This is called 'consciously placing ones sense of 'I' wherever we intent to, and no one can do that non-consciously. And what we need to be able to do that, is the faculties of awareness and attention. The moment we are completely identified with a mood or inner state like anger or fear, the moment we have become this state -  our feeling of 'I' and our state has fused and become the same, i.e. we have placed our sense of 'I' in one of our randomly occurring and fluctuating moods. The moment we are aware and more attentive, we will be able to observe this different moods or states and have become more conscious and are less prone to identification. 

So if your objective is to change and become a more conscious person, what you always have to take into consideration and remember is where you have placed your feeling of 'I'.

First published: 19 January 2012

Copyright© Alexander Filmer-Lorch January 2012 all rights reserved