• Meditation
• Why We Meditate
• Meditation Technique
• Meditation FAQs

Meditation

Beginning Meditation

If you are a beginner who is curious about meditation or an experienced meditator who just wants to try out our practice, we suggest you come to one of our Monday or Wednesday night programs. They start at 7:00 pm and last for an hour.

• Monday nights include chanting, a short talk on kundalini meditation practice, and a short guided meditation.
• Wednesday nights feature chanting and a longer guided meditation.

For a preview of our practice, here is a guided meditation video from Swami Chetanananda.

Want to learn more? We offer a number of courses on the theory and practice of kundalini meditation.

Do you need support for practicing at home? Try a guided meditation CD by Swami Chetanananda, available from Rudra Press.

Do you have more questions? Check our meditation FAQs page or contact us.

Eyes-Open Meditation

Our core practice at the Movement Center is eyes-open meditation, a dynamic practice with transformative effects. In eyes-open meditation, students sit as a group in silence with a teacher who represents the accumulated wisdom of the lineage as well as a limitless source of creative energy.

Eyes-open meditation is an opportunity for us to awaken our own creative energy. Our connection with the teacher is the bridge from our ordinary existence to the amazing possibility that exists for us. We can participate in the experience of the state of joy and fullness that is the foundation of our existence. In that experience, we are in contact with all of our senses, our personal reality, and from that place, we learn to make contact with the ultimate reality.

Participation in eyes-open meditation requires a simple set of tools that enable us to connect deeply to ourselves, to the teacher, and eventually to everything around us. In doing eyes-open meditation practice:

• We’re trained in how to maintain our center as we move throughout our day.
• We learn to fully occupy the space of our physical bodies and the space of our lives.
• We become aware of the subtle dynamics at work in our environment.

Eyes-open meditation practice is held Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays at 7:00 pm. Before attending eyes-open practice, you are required to attend an introductory session. The introduction is offered at 6:00 pm on the days when eyes-open meditation is held. Call the office at 503.231.0383 to make an appointment to receive an introduction.

Benefits of Meditation

 

The basis for spiritual practice at the Movement Center is the belief that we are in this world to grow spiritually. Practicing meditation is a way for us to develop a more refined awareness and a connection to our subtle body. So meditation is our core practice.

Meditation, however, also has benefits on other levels. Among them  are:

• reducing stress
• enhancing creativity
• opening the heart and cultivating compassion
• promoting healing
• increasing self-awareness
• improving concentration

If you'd like to know more, here are some articles about the beneficial effects of meditation:

• "Healing Art of Meditation" in Yale Scientific Magazine
• "Study: Meditation May Boost Brain Activity" from CNN.com
• "Meditation: A Simple, Fast Way to Reduce Stress," from the Mayo Clinic
• "Heal Thyself: Meditate" in New Scientist
• "Mindfulness Meditation Training Changes Brain Structure in Eight Weeks" from Science Daily
• "Meditate to Create" from Frontiers in Cognition