I would like to inform you of my plans for the coming year or eighteen months.

Currently I am working to finish our advanced meditation manual that I hope will comprehensively cover all the practices I have taught on the various retreats we have hosted over the last 10 years or so. Once this is done and published I wish to take some time to do long retreat.

Leading up to that time I will be teaching the Foundation / Healing Meditation retreat every month as well as a few other ( advanced healing, internal Alchemy, Metta and Breathing Meditation retreat and Basic Vipassana retreats ).

Then in July and August I will run a two month retreat for those of you who feel ready for sustained guided practice in Samatha and Preliminary Vipassana. I will give systematic teaching as far as is possible and depending upon the progress of the group, following the practices laid out in our advanced meditation manual.

There after I will do my own retreat for a year.

During this time I hope to train a few of my mature students to be assistant teachers so that at the end of this period we will be able to offer more retreats for free to more people. With the continued increase in demand for these retreats we are no longer able to provide retreat space for everyone who wishes to come on retreat, and I will no longer be able to run all of these retreats myself. I am hoping that thereafter the Usada and foundation retreats will be hosted by assistant teachers, and I will be able to focus upon guiding those who have chosen to commit more deeply to the path.

Prior to the two month Summer retreat I will endeavour to visit again my teachers to put respect and ask for their blessings in all of this. I am considering the possibility of running the two month retreat either in Bali ( hopefully at Merta Ada’s centre, or in Burma ( in Bagan ) or in India.

We will decide this in the next month of so.

So if you are maturing in your practice and have sat a few retreats now and feel you are ready for longer retreat, you may wish to start planning ahead for this. It will be necessary to make a request to join the long retreat, and ideally you would have a few years of practice behind you and stability in all of our preliminary meditation practices.

Places to join me on the year long retreat will be on an invitation basis depending on individuals wishes and their readiness for such sustained practice. I am hoping to be able to support participants as much as I can financially, but we will not be able to offer this long term retreat free of charge. If you wish to sponsor someone else to join who may have the wish but not the means, it is a truly wonderful merit to offer the gift of Dana. Please do contact us with your proposals in this regards. It would be great to be able to support others who have the aspiration to commit to deeper progress on the path in a way that might in future benefit others.

I hope this is helpful to you and that with this in mind you are better able to plan your participation on retreat over the coming year.

I would say that if I decide to do my year long retreat in England I may well continue to run occasional introductory retreats in the Autumn and winter of 2012. If I do it abroad obviously this will not happen.

The retreats at Poulstone Court will remain available on a donation basis as long as they are scheduled. So if you are interested in coming please book your place soon. Demand for these retreats in the past six months have been high so please plan ahead now.

Publication dates for the new book:

Volume 1. The Systematic development of Concentration,Samadhi and Jhana (Approx 320 pages) Published Feb/March 2012

Volume 2 Healing Dhamma and the Preparitory work for Vipassana ( Approx 300 pages) ; Published March /April 2012

Volume 3 Vipassana and the Path of Freedom.( Approx 300 Pages); published April/May 2012.

May you all progress upon the path according to your hearts deepest wishes , and may you all find peace and happiness.

With Metta

Burgs

I would like to let you all know about some of the things that are coming up in our programme for the last part of the year and into 2012.

Coming up next weekend (19^th/20^th November) is our last healing chi kung and meditation weekend of the year to be held at The Columbia Hotel, Bayswater, London. There are currently a few places left so if you do wish to join us please let us know soon. These weekends are a great introduction into the aspects of the work Burgs offers on the long weekend and week long retreats.
http://theartofmeditation.org/chi-kung-meditation-healing-workshops/

We have added a new 7 day Beginners Foundation in Healing Meditation retreat (Usada) in December (7^th – 14^th) to meet the increase in demand for places on these retreats. And of course all of these retreats are now on donation basis for both the teaching and room & board.
http://theartofmeditation.org/meditation-retreats/usada-healing-meditation/

Also our end of year ‘sharing of merits’ session will be held on the 15^th December at the Columbia Hotel. The evening will start at 7pm and is an opportunity for all to reflect on the past year and share the fruit of our good deeds with those around us in our lives. If you would like to attend, please email us so we have an idea about numbers attending. The evening is offered on donation where all proceeds will go to charity. Please email bookings@theartofmeditation.org

Next years schedule is now available and can be viewed on our website. We have a selection of new 4 day long weekend retreats for those who are not able to attend a 7 day retreat. Also is the scheduled trip to the south of France during April next year where I will be teaching a Usada Beginners retreat and a healing detox programme.
http://theartofmeditation.org/schedule/

Behind the scenes we are currently editing around a hundred audio recordings which will be coming online over the next few months. So do keep an eye on the various new teachings page on our website.
http://theartofmeditation.org/audio-discourses/

New to the website are the written texts, transcribed from discourses given on retreat. We will mail out updates to anyone who wants to be kept informed as these teachings are published so let us know if you do. If any of you would like to help transcribe some of these files then please let us know.
http://theartofmeditation.org/written-material/

You can also visit our youtube channel which has video content from retreats and workshops. This is also updated with new content as it becomes available.
http://www.youtube.com/user/BurgsOnMeditation

In general there is now a commitment to make the teachings more widely available, both through the free online access to recorded material and through making the residential retreats available on donation only.

So I hope you will find something new to support and help you progress with your own practice, but equally that there is something that may help some of your interested friends take the first steps to finding out what a vast field of wonder and potential lies waiting to be discovered in this whole arena of self development and healing.

Wishing you all the best of health peace and happiness.
Burgs

I am delighted to announce that in future all of my residential meditation retreats will be made freely available to anyone regardless of means. I have always offered the teachings on a donation basis, but because of our fixed costs we have had to charge for room and board. While this is not ideal it has been an economic reality we have had to face. However we have worked hard the past few years to reach a point where we could offer these retreats entirely on donation basis (room and board as well as the teachings themselves).

As a result of the generosity of others and a genuine willingness to support our efforts we have now reached a point where we can do this.

So from now on there will be no fixed cost for these retreats. We will simply ask each individual to make separate donations for room and board and the teachings according to their means.

I hope that this will open up this work to a wider audience at a time when many are finding things financially challenging. Now more than ever I feel both the teaching and the practice that is taught might be a genuine support to many.

So with immediate effect, all 3, 4 and 7 day retreats will be available on this basis. We will however ask participants to pay a deposit of £100 pounds (by cheque) to secure a place. If this is too much for some people we will return the deposit at the beginning of the retreat allowing those who are genuinely hard up to come for free if necessary. In these special cases please request this at your time of booking.

I would like to make the point that for this gesture to succeed going forward each participant should reflect on the virtue of generosity and the fact that your place on retreat has been paid for by those who have gone before. If upon completing your retreat you feel it has benefited you, you will be asked to express your gratitude appropriately and do what you can to support those who might wish to come after you.

I believe this is a wonderful thing, and hope you agree. If so please tell your friends who may perhaps benefit from this

We will continue to charge for some of our more specialist retreats, but for those of you who might in the past have wanted to learn meditation, or have been thinking about coming back but have been unable to afford it, the door is now open to you all.

I hope to see many of you in future.

Taking time to learn to tame and hone our minds is such a wonderful gift to give yourselves, that serves us at so many levels in life.
May all beings be Happy.

With love to all

Burgs

Its been a busy time for all of us over summer and as the new autumn programme starts, there’s much more to look forward to. There’s much to tell about our exciting news regarding the format change for all meditation retreats, which we will outline in a following email later this month. However, for now we have a couple of things which you might be interested in.

Burgs will be at Beacon Bank starting from Friday this week (16th September) for the scheduled detox retreat. This is a great opportunity for you to cleanse your body, based on the programme he put together for his Bali detox centre, which has seen some amazing results for people. This programme is part of Burgs’ holistic view of healing the body and mind of sickness and disease, and is a result of working for many years as a healer helping those around him.

There are still a couple of places available so if you are interested in joining in then please email us at bookings@theartofmeditation.org. Details of the programme to be run can be found at http://theartofmeditation.org/meditation-retreats/detox-retreats-uk/
Whilst Burgs is at Beacon Bank, he will be available for private consultations during the week. The consultations will last for 2hrs and any health issues or other related topics can be discussed. This includes queries regarding meditation practice. After your consultation you are welcome to join in any of the yoga, chi kung or meditation sessions that might be running during the progress of the detox retreat. Lunch can also be provided if you so wish.

Beacon Bank is situated in the lovely Staffordshire countryside just outside Stafford town centre, and is 10/15min taxi ride from the station. Stafford town centre has excellent transport links, and can be reached by fast train in only an 1hr 15min from London Euston. By car Beacon Bank is about a 2hr 30min journey depending on traffic from London.

The 2hr consultation is priced at £120 with food and any exercise sessions included if you so wish. To book a consultation please email usenquiries@theartofmeditation.org

We look forward to hearing from you soon.

Much Metta

The Art of Meditation Team

In the comfort of our own homes it’s easy to forget that starvation and homelessness is an everyday reality for hundreds of millions of people. Taking part in the Tri-Mettathon event encourages us to reflect on our good fortune in this life, and raise money for charity.

Do you know what it is like to be homeless or truly hungry? There are nearly 110,000 people in the UK who are currently homeless, with hundreds of millions more around the globe. The number of  starving has passed the one billion mark globally and food aid has started to be handed out in our very own country. It has become an international crisis transcending all borders. These numbers are very daunting and there is indeed a massive mountain to climb to even make a dent in these figures. Behind every statistic there is a life, and one that is undergoing tremendous suffering that most of us simply cannot comprehend. On a national level there is much to be done, but we can also help out on a local initiative, changing lives forever.

One group of determined individuals has taken it upon itself to do just that – organising a local fundraising event in an unconventional way with the Buddha’s teachings at its heart, which will test each member’s own endurance to the core. The fundraiser, organised by Burgs and The Art of Meditation, is raising money over a 15-day period. The aim behind the fundraiser is to provide the basic requisites of life- of food and shelter- to those who do not have it. The time is set to be intense; for the first seven days the group will go on a 120-mile walk across the English countryside, sleeping rough to experience homelessness.

In the second phase the participants will go without food for at least 5 days to experience hunger and, on the final day, there will be a 24-hour Metta meditation (Metta is the ancient Pali word for lovingkindness, a meditation practice aimed at easing the suffering of oneself and those around us). The money raised will go to homeless charities in the UK, such as Crisis and Shelter, to orphanages in Burma which the Art of Meditation already support, and to provide medicine to children at a school in Kenya, all of whom are living with HIV.

There are a limited number of spaces available to join the core-group for all events; however anyone can join in with the 24-hour meditation that will be held at the Cowdray chapel in Midhurst, West Sussex, over the May bank holiday weekend. It is suggested that sponsors should consider how much money they would normally spend on food in a single day and offer up this amount when sponsoring the event (perhaps even foregoing the food for that day!).

It is set to be a life-changing event, both for those who take part and those receiving the funds, and is definitely one for the calendar.

The event is due to run from May 19 – May 29. For more information on sponsorship and participation please visit www.trimettathon.org  or email enquiries@theartofmeditation.org

Dear  All

Sally and I are heading down the Thames in my rowing boat, the Pog,
assisted by a small outboard engine (we’re not totally mad) from my
family home, Lushill, near the source of the Thames, to London.  This
is over a 100 miles and there are 45 locks to conquer (well, I suspect
the wiers are more problematic if we miss the locks) and we have been
told it will take us a week.

Why are we doing this?  Well, most of you know of my struggle with two
lymphoma cancers which were diagnosed in early 2002 and took until
2009 to submit into remission.  This was achieved by a lot of chemo
and finally an auto stem cell transplant under the watchful care of
Professor Andrew Lister at St. Barts Hospital in London.  Professor
Lister has since retired but I am forever indebted to him, his team
and his research department which is now headed by Professor John
Gribben.  To that end we want to raise money for their essential
research…. it certainly saved my bacon!!!!

However, you don’t battle cancer for seven and a half years with out
help and that help came from Guy Lucking, better known as Burgs.  He
is a great friend of my brother’s and was in the right place at the
right time when I was diagnosed ie: over here from Bali and there is
no doubt in my mind that without him I would have never survived this
arduous journey.  His meditation teachings are second to none.  The
healing he gave me, week in week out for months, if only to gain
enough strength in order to take another staggering blow from very
strong chemo, saved me.  Perhaps not only in the physical sense but
that you can find out more about by going on one of his healing
retreats and by reading his website  www.theartofmeditation.org.
I give thanks to Burgs and his teachings every day and I would like to
show my gratitude in raising money for those who do not have the means
to go on one of his retreats but who yurn to.  He gives his teachings
for free but it is the board and lodging that need to be covered.
So please join us in giving money for these two great causes which are
so important to me.  Sally is being amazing and giving herself by
saying she will come with me and I am sure we will have fun.  It’s an
adventure, very ‘Wind in the Willows’ and it has meaning:

Life is a river and we are not going to the mouth of the Thames as
that would be the end of the journey, we are going to London: an
exciting part of the river where all the fun is yet to come!!!  This
is an expedition to celebrate life and its meandering course so please
give as generously as you can:

1.      To donate to St. Barts stem cell research please go to:
www.justgiving.com/SamanthaThornton

2.      To donate to the meditation teaching fund please send a cheque made
payable to Healing Meditation Fund c/o Samantha Thornton
Lower Burytown FarmHouse, Blunsdon, Swindon, Wilts. SN26 7D

I’m really pleased to offer this Cleansing program.

The retreat will start on the 18th March 2011

Please click on Urban Detox Retreats and scroll down to
‘Prices’ to see the retreat schedule.

Please forward this information to anyone you feel could be interested in the Cleanse

Thank you
Cathy Dawe

10 Day Pure Cleansing Program

 In the heart of the Ashdown Forest Urban Detox Retreats is holding a unique 10 day pure cleansing program to completely rejuvenate and vitalise you for 2011.

The retreat location is the Ashdown Retreat in Forest Row.

This retreat is perfect to get your body, mind and soul into action for 2011, it provides an extensive deep cleansing program.

For enquiries and questions please contact Steven Karim at steven@urbandetox.org.uk

I want to ask you to stop and think for a few minutes as we come into this New Year.

It is significant that today is 1.1.11. If ever there was a symbol for a new beginning, surely this is it. New Year 2011. We are in the middle of facing some of the greatest challenges we as a planet have ever faced. Lets stop for a moment and reflect on how we might face these challenges.

Start by reflecting on the name of our country. And ask yourself, are we a United Kingdom? Just ask the question. Don’t get lost in looking for the answer.

The whole world faces similar problems to those we as a nation face. Many face problems unimaginably greater than us. Though we all need to co-operate, we will all have to find our own unique solutions to working through them as groups of people within a larger group. The solutions for India will not be the same as those for Norway, or those for Brazil. Nor will they be the same as our solution. But in the end the only solution will be to actually face the challenges that are real and not pretend they are not.

Basically our problem is this. In our country we as a nation spend nearly five pounds for every pound we earn, and there is forty thousand pounds worth of debt for every man woman and child. Whether this is personal debt, corporate debt or government debt does not matter. What it means is this. We have borrowed our convenient lifestyle, and haven’t got the means to pay for it.

It is not enough to turn to the government for answers. The decisions that need to be made to save our country from financial ruin are tantamount to political suicide. It will be impossible for any government who requires popular support to make the decisions on policy that are necessary unless there is a consensus of opinion that things need to change in a very big way. The problem does not just lie in the hands of those who run the country; it lies in our sense of entitlement. We might well have had bigger houses and cars, new TVs and phones dangled in front of us as carrots to spur our economic growth. But we as individuals decided to borrow the money to acquire conveniences, services and luxuries we could not afford. It isn’t the fault of capitalism alone. It is called greed and we are all guilty of it. In truth the wealth we have generated as a nation the last twenty years or so could actually only afford to pay for a modest lifestyle that might provide for our basic needs and the odd indulgence on special occasions. And yet we have assumed for ourselves a lifestyle of indulgence that we cannot afford. Now of course this doesn’t apply to everyone. Many people are struggling to make ends meet, but most of us are living beyond our means and have got so used to doing it that the idea of pulling in the belt straps appals us. Look at how we have reacted to the governments’ calls for austerity. We have threatened to strike and even riot, when in truth these measure are minimal compared to the adjustment that is actually called for. There was actually a point where it was thought by some that the only way to get the support of the nation was to ask us to spend our way out of recession. And that illustrates other point. What is needed is not a change of government but a change of attitude in us all.

We need to wake up. This is not a political message. But like it or not whoever is running the country now will be doing so for the next few years. We need to get over that and get on with what needs to be done by ALL of us.

These next few years are going to define our future for our children and our children’s children. We are going to have to be a United Kingdom in our efforts and not point the finger at government alone or hold them responsible for our future.

Firstly reflect upon a law of the universe. It is the law of cause and effect that states; you never get more than you can handle and you always get what you deserve. Somewhere we must all have earned the extraordinary good fortune we are blessed with. We must also have earned the challenge that we face, perhaps on account of complacency, who knows? And we never get more than we can handle. The question is, will we choose to handle it. The odds, we have to understand, are against us. Historically people haven’t chosen to change until change is forced upon them. Now is the time where this trend HAS to be broken, by us, right now. The planet cannot cope much longer with what we are doing to it anyway, so if we don’t choose to change in very significant ways, then whether it is we, or our children, some will be forced to change in very uncomfortable ways.

Basically, until we all learn to be of fewer needs and wants, we will never again return to a state of abundance and comfort in our lives. That is it. It is that simple. If we are not willing to change in very significant ways we will not be bequeathing a stable social and economic environment to our children. Please be willing to change now.

It doesn’t matter what political views you hold, our government will not change for the next few years, and in the next few years the direction in which we are heading will be set. At least give a sign that we are willing to change.

We need to truly, perhaps for the first time since the war, be a United Kingdom. For have not doubt that the challenges we now face are as great as any throughout history. Lets wake up from our complacency, be willing to put in a dollars work for dollars pay, and do for others needing nothing back at times. Live within our means and support each other. Share and support others. There will be many who need support and many who can give it if they wish. We are all in this together.

The leaders of our country know this, they all have children too, and however privileged they may be, they will know that either we all get through this or no one does. This is not a political issue, it is a folk issue. It’s about all of us. Find ways to change. Please. For all of us and all our children. Be willing to take accountability jointly for what we face and don’t point the finger at another without first pointing it at yourself.

There is greatness in us all as people. We have proven in the past that we can call upon it when we need it. Our ancestors dug deep once to give us the security we have taken for granted. It is time for us to do the same for those who will come after us. Lets not forget that greatness now and fall into apathy as we blame others for our plight.

Share this message; it is your message of hope for the New Year, and for the future. Think about it, talk about it. And find ways to change amongst yourselves because it is the changes that we choose to make that will decide the outcome. There is no government that will be able to ask of us what is needed to be asked. We must ask it of ourselves, take responsibility and not wait to be shown the way or blame others when we aren’t. That’s what it is to be great, to be United.

This has been a very challenging year for many of us, even for our country as a whole, indeed the whole world. It is all too easy to get lost in negativity when we face great challenge, instead of looking to how we might use the challenge as a basis for transformation that otherwise me may not have come to.

Since Christmas is very much a Christian festival, as well as a secular time of family and friendship, I want to take some lessons from the example of Jesus and see how they may be of great benefit and blessing to us now. 

There is so much focus on fear at the moment. So much finger pointing externally to the challenges that we and all our world are facing that we often fail to look inside to see what lessons we might take to heart.

When we look at the example of Jesus’ life we can see his transformation from a young man with a love for his people to a truly ascended master. I am always being asked how the teachings of Christ sit alongside the Buddha’s Dhamma. To see this we must look not just at Jesus teachings, for he did not live a long life in which to share what insight he came to, but we must look also to his life itself and what it came to symbolise.

The first and obvious similarity between the teachings of Jesus and the Buddha is the absolute insistence that the only path to happiness lies in our commitment to virtue and the love of others. One could argue that we are all capable of coming to an understanding of what is right and wrong as it is an innate human capacity to know this. But the fact is that we are willing to forgo our commitment to virtue in our pursuit of our personal needs or wants.

The Buddha taught us dependant origination and with it showed us how we are each accountable for our actions at every moment. They are either rooted in greed anger or ignorance, or wisdom, selflessness, thoughtfulness and love for others. Ultimately he came to see that ignorance is the basic cause of all harm done to self and others. It is this important truth that we fail to see when we point the finger of blame at others instead of seeing the suffering that this ignorance is causing everyone.

When the Buddha was 28 he did not know this. He was still in his search for the cessation of suffering and so was still prone to views. Seeing life as pointless he rejected his worldly position in search of the holy life.

At a similar age, Jesus insight was similarly unripened. We see this in his gestures in the temple when he is outraged by the traders and gambles who have desecrated the shrine. His response is clearly one of anger and finger pointing, not yet reaching the full expression of compassion. This is similar to us today when we blame the leaders and rulers of our nations and its institutions for the pitiful stage of our world today. It was so clearly apparent in the student demonstrations. We seem to have inherited and endless sense of entitlement It seems to be in our nature to blame others for our woes rather than seek how we might have brought them upon ourselves.

There is a vein of new age socialism that has become popular thought amongst the privileged classes. We point the finger of blame at those who wield more power than us, quite rightly pointing out their greed and unscrupulous pursuit of personal gain. But we totally fail to see how our own greed and pursuit of gain has been the foundation upon which such manipulation is built. That there is 40000 pounds of debt in our country for ever man woman and child is not alone the fault of those who have leant us the money and sold us the goods that we think we need. It is because we are not realistic about what it is we actually have a right to in this life. Each one of us is responsible for the consumption of the precious resources that are not running out.

But Jesus did not stop here, he continued to evolve throughout his life, as indeed the Buddha did, eventually making the transition from adolescent idealism into the maturity of true wisdom that finally lead both of them to the experience and understanding of true and unconditional love and compassion.

Jesus was crucified at about the same age that the Buddha became enlightened. Sadly we never got to receive a legacy of teachings from him for his final awakening only happened in the moments before his death.

Let us look at this and see how we might review our own attitudes to others in light of it. Only a few minutes before his death, Jesus was in a state of despair. He was unable to make sense of what was happening to him and turned to God asking “Why have you forsaken me”. At this point he could only see the greed, selfishness and hatred in the hearts of those who had condemned him. He had not yet reached the highest understanding. This realisation only came to him at the point of his death. At that point he saw dependent origination as the Buddha did. He saw that greed and hatred are not innate in any being, even those who perform the most hideous and selfish of acts. He saw finally that all greed and all hatred are themselves only conditioned by ignorance. It is confusion that is the cause of hatred and greed, nothing else. As he saw the ignorance of those who murdered him he saw their true suffering, and the fear that their ignorance had caused them. Seeing this he was both freed of his own suffering and overwhelmed with love and compassion. No longer asking God why he had forsaken him, be begged for their forgiveness saying “ Forgive them, they know not what they do”

With this final realisation of dependent origination there was nowhere to place the blame for what was happening to him. He reached a state of total acceptance love and compassion. It was this moment of awakening that made him the truly ascended master who embodies a truth far more profound that his previous sermon on the Mount can possibly hint at.

Today perhaps let us look at out own willingness to preach to others and point the finger of blame for our suffering. In the end Jesus did not see his fate as unfair or inexplicable. He could see that he had upset the sensibilities and prejudices of those who could not see the truth. He saw in the end that their anger and hatred towards him was only an expression of fear that was rooted in their ignorance and confusion. All of us are afraid at some level until we finally awaken to the true power of love. 

Its Christmas soon. And everyone is out buying presents for each other, and is many of them will be paid for on credit cards and overdraft. Its all too easy to see this as an expression of our greed and need to consume. But why not stop for a while next time you are in the checkout at Marks and Spensors or Harvey Nichols and take a look around you. In your small and fearful mind you might feel disgusted that we are still willing to consume so much inspite of all the lessons that are shown to us everyday regarding the state of our planet.

But if you stop a while longer and look as Jesus or the Buddha did, then you might just see that behind this, these are people who inspite of the difficulties they are facing, share a common desire to express their love and affection for those who are dear to them.

And what is more, before we condemn Christmas as a gross expression of our consumerism, try to see it for what is truly is. A brief moment each year, in which we all turn away from our obsession with ourselves and come together as families; as one family, to take a few days rest together and share that wonderful innate human capacity for kindness and affection.

Think of Jesus, even if only for a few minutes this Christmas, and try to put your mind to his as he reached that place of total forgiveness and love. Let this support you in your understanding and transform your judgement into compassion. Love all being equally as he did for they are all our brothers and sisters, everyone of them

Have a wonderful wonderful Christmas and may all our wishes for peace and true happiness be fulfilled.

With boundless love to you all

 Burgs

So how is it that such a change can come about in such a short time?

Mindfulness is quite simply awareness. Or even more simply it is paying attention.

Each of us has a certain amount of mindfulness as part of our everyday consciousness. In some it is naturally well developed in others the mind is scattered and restless, wandering around here there and everywhere but seldom resting within the body in a state of simply being present. The meditation I teach beginners to is to learn to settle their attention within the body. It serves to establish concentration while bringing a degree of coherence back to the otherwise disorganised energies in the body.

When I check each persons meditation, one of the things I am checking is the awareness , or mindfulness levels within their own bodies. This mindfulness is one of the key players in determining a person’s resistance to sickness or their tendency to ill health.

Lets take the virus as an example to illustrate this point.

I use a scale which I measure against my own body to assess a persons physical awareness levels. At an energetic level the correlation between this mindfulness level and the integrity of their immune system is considerable.

The average person’s level of mindfulness (on my arbitrary scale ) is around 90 ( with 300 being the highest level. A virus has more the characteristic of consciousness than matter, unlike a bacteria which is predominantly a material entity with limited awareness levels.

Viruses respond directly to consciousness, even mutating and changing characteristics with the conscious environment in which they reside. The average flu virus has an awareness level similar to that of most of us, around 90. The important difference to our own mindfulness is that a virus produces a left handed spin in matter while our own wholesome states of consciousness ( ie mindfulness ) produce a right handed spin. It is the left-handed spin that has the disorganising effect that opposes the organising effect that our own mindfulness has on your system. Put six people in a room for a few hours and bring in someone with the flu and the next day some of them will begin to display the flu symptoms, while others wont. Yet all of them will have been exposed to the virus in that time. In those whose mindfulness levels are over 90 the flu symptoms will not develop. Those who might be tired or run down, and with mindfulness levels below 90 will invariably develop the flu. To understand this we need to understand that it is not the virus that causes the sickness, but the body’s reaction to it. If there is enough mindfulness in the body there will not be a reaction to contact with the virus and so the body will not produce a supporting environment for it to proliferate.

When we meditate, most people are able to raise their mindfulness levels to over 100 within a couple of days of sustained practice. At this level the virus stops producing the reaction in the body that supports it and the flu symptoms will. Even at a physical level we can see the changes in the system. Under dark field microscope we can observe a significant increase in the mobilisation of the white blood cells witch the body uses to combat a virus after only three days of sustained meditation.

If we already have a resting level of mindfulness within our body of over 100 we are unlikely to develop flu at all.

Lets take the hepatitis virus as another example. This virus has a mindfulness level of around 120. This is higher than most people’s resting state mindfulness and so nearly everyone exposed to the Hep B virus will develop the symptoms. The virus produces a hot energy in the liver, and the lack of sufficient mindfulness causes the liver to react. The liver itself becomes hot and over time dry and stiff producing the cirrhosis.

Many of the people coming on meditation retreat have managed to raise their mindfulness levels up high enough to reverse the damage in the liver and allow the cells to correct themselves. Robbed of a supportive environment the virus no longer survives in the body. Some people have successfully achieved such results with a weeklong meditation retreat.

The HIV virus poses an even more challenging threat. It has an awareness level of 220. Now this is extremely high. Many advanced yogis have not reached this level of mindfulness in their own bodies. In fact the only person I have perceived to have a natural mindfulness level as high as this is the famous chess player Kaspirov. I am not saying that if exposed to the HIV virus he would not develop symptoms but his chances of resisting the virus would be good. Some years ago I did an experiment with my teacher on a group of meditators who all carried the HIV virus. They were trained extensively and spent many months diligently practicing. Eight of them were able over time to achieve such levels of mindfulness. All of their symptoms disappeared and when tested of the virus it had all but disappeared from the blood, with almost undetectable levels remaining.

Every year, millions of us go down within the flu. Until only there is no medicine that can treat the flu virus, we can only take medication or supplements to support the body’s resistance to it. This is because all medicine is nutriment. It is indeed possible to treat bacterial infection with nutriment, but not a virus. This is because the vibrational bandwidth of viruses is more akin to consciousness than nutriment of any kind. Medicine, being nutriment in nature, miss match with the virus’s energetic signature. However our consciousness interacts directly with viruses. A mind that is restless, stressed or scattered will react to and support the proliferation of viral infection in the body. But a mind that is well organised, concentrated and mindful will not. This year, why not try for yourself. Learn a basic meditation practice that takes the body as the object of concentration. Practice daily to raise your body’s mindfulness levels and see if you can be one of those who can sail through the winter without falling prey to the dreaded flu.