How it started

Life has always been a puzzle, full of surprises, and slow to reveal its pattern and sense. Now, we find a further challenge. Our world changes ever more quickly. Each technological achievement and the globalisation of information take us further away from the simpler ways of our ancestors. It seems that as our world becomes more mechanized and divorced from nature, we easily become cut off from important parts of ourselves. The question of how to respond to this increasing alienation concerns not only individuals but whole cultures. Meditation is a special kind of doing in which we allow less to be done.

 

The key principle of many forms of meditation is to reverse the ordinary direction of attention, which is usually towards activity and sensory experience, and to allow the activity of the mind and body to become more settled, until we enter a state beyond our ordinary experience, in which the mind becomes expanded and the body energized. The institute provides weekly sessions on meditation training (free of charge), which are usually attended by hundreds of people. The mediation method we use was developed by the institute’s founder, Professor Suryani, through her more than 50 years of relevant experience. It combines elements of traditional forms of meditation with trance conditioning and group therapy procedures that partialy follow positive and existential psychology themes.