Meditation: Taking control of your environment

The goal of the seminar we offer is to give people a deeper understanding of awareness During conflict. It is not meant to expose people to Taoist principles. It is rather meant to allow them to experience awareness of themselves and their environment at a fundamentally deeper level than usual. It is also designed to give the students simple and practical techniques that they can use to increase their awareness and effectiveness during mediation.

The first step is to see the environment clearly as it is not tainted by your past experience or bias. All mediation systems and techniques, as effective as they are, are only based on past cases. Every new situation is unique.  In order to be most effective in mediation, your focus needs to be fully present in the current situation.  Systems and techniques are only tools that you may use to solve a perceived problem. A good mediator will be ready to use or drop any system as the situation demands. In order to be most effective at this we need to develop some advanced internal skills. In all things in life, it is not so much what you are doing, but how you do it. There is no simple canned system or technique that will solve any problem. In fact in most cases techniques can only take you so far in the process. The success of any system will always hinge on the mediator’s ability to asses how to know techniques it into the current situation. The understanding of the current situation is always limited by a person’s degree of awareness.

This seminar uses a mixture of meditation and Qi Kung techniques to help you increase your awareness and control of any situation. The seminar begins by looking at how important awareness is to the successful resolutions of all conflicts.  It relates how simple the process of awareness and perception is investigated through a Taoist perspective.  It explores how much of our thought process may be tainted by past experience and past perspective.  It gives the user insight into how greater clarity of mind and objectivity can be gained by seeing things void of perspective.

Simple breathing and focus techniques are taught that will help to bring the mediator a more clear view of present conflicts. Simple Qi Kung techniques are taught that can help develop a greater presence of mind.  Conflict is explored through a Taoist perspective. Simple techniques of balance and awareness are practiced. The final section of the seminar deals with practical applications of Taoist techniques during meditation.

Elements of control:

There are two main elements involved in bringing you closer to your center.

• Being present in the moment.
• Being aware of yourself within your environment.

In nature the concepts are simple but your degree on being centered will determine the degree of clarity you will be able to achieve and maintain. All forces around us influence us and we have influence over all things around us. Being sensitive to both of these principles is essential for effective interaction during the conflict.  The best system in the world will not do any good if applied to the wrong situation at the wrong time.

Taoist meditation principals deal with being aware of yourself and how you interact with the forces in your environment. Simple meditative and breathing techniques will help you become more in tune with your internal and external forces. This sensitivity increases your clarity of mind and assists you in making better decisions.

Please do reflect on these things. Share your comments with us.