MEDITATION
Meditation is arguably the most important skill we can learn.Physical and mental health are fundamental to a fulfilling and happy life. Some people will spend hours working on their physical health but very few spend any time at all on developing the skills needed for a strong and robust mental health.In our modern lifestyle, we are constantly surrounded by stress, anxiety, deadlines, financial pressure and worries for the future. For a healthy and fulfilling life, we need to learn to ground ourselves. To find inner calm and clarity so that we can react in a positive way to life’s stresses.
In Japan, meditation as been closely connected with martial arts for millennia. Originally, the Shinto practice of Misogi – meditation through repetitive, hard practice and endurance, was ideal for the intense training needed for a Samurai. With the arrival of Zen Buddhism from China, the Samurai quickly realised its benefits. A clear, calm mind in the face of adversity was exactly the state of mind needed to be an effective warrior. A mind uncluttered by worries, distraction and anxiety could be the difference between life and death. These skills are precisely what we need, to find a way forward in our modern lives.Matt Teale started practicing meditation in 1991 and studied Zazen (Zen meditation) with Chiba Sensei in 1993. He continued to incorporate Zazen into his own and his students training from that time on. As well as meditation being a normal part of the schedule in the dojo in Greece, there were regular weekend Zen retreats lead by Shokan Osho (Shogen Dojo, Zurich). In his medical practice he uses guided relaxation and hypnotherapy to help his patients with anxiety and phobias. We believe that the formal, simplicity of classic Zazen practice complements and is complemented by modern meditation techniques and we use both approaches to get the maximum benefit from our sessions.